and on the Sixth day, god created MANchester

End of the line

2007-09-05T22:36:00.001Z

It all started about a year ago. I finished my exams at my Uni in Athens on the 14th of September, only to fly to London and take the train to Manchester on the 15th. A long time's dream had started but it turned out to be too short.

Settling in, meeting new people, attending classes, working and... watching football. God, I'll miss the football... Nothing better than watching a Liverpool game at the Rampant Lion with a beer on my hand...

I'm leaving Manchester in a few days and I only have good memories to take with me... Except for the weather, of course!

By handing in my dissertation tomorrow I will not only close my Master's chapter, but a whole book. The book titled as "Student Life". It's time to put it on the shelf and start writing a new one. God knows what the name will be...

I started writing this blog on the 26th of September. I intended to keep updating it daily but parties, assignments and trips made that impossible. After 8 months I picked up from where I left things and now it is time to finish what I started. I might start a new, Athens-based, blog, but this is just a thought at the moment...

So, this is it. Goodbye. Adios. Alivederci. Αντίο. It's been delightful writing to you, text-editor embedded on a web-page....

Got backup?

2007-08-25T00:42:00.000Z

Okay, I was coming back from grocery shopping the other day when I saw a giant poster on the notice board. Unfortunately my mobile's camera is not working, so I will just have to give you the gist of it: "I have lost my Ipod that had all my research, If you've found it please contact me! Very Urgent!!!".

Are you kidding me?

Losing an iPod is stupid enough, but losing and iPod that has your thesis is beyond any comment.... But I cannot hold myself, so I'll have my take:

Backup is underestimated by everyone. Nobody backs up, I don't normally (or regularly) back up and most definitely you haven't backed up for at least 2 months. That's fine by me because I know that even if my hard drive is screwed, I'd only lose my iTunes playlist, some photos and some cool apps I've discovered recently... I can live with that... (and come to think about it, I have my favorite albums either on CD or on my old iBook)

Nevertheless, I backed up x3 while working on my dissertation on a daily basis.

Since I HAD to work on the Windows partition of my Mac, every night I'd e-mail the day's work to two different e-mail accounts, and also copy them to my OS X partition. JUST TO MAKE SURE. Just because I knew that when you are doing something of vital importance, you can never be too careful. The only day I forgot to back up and went out, I was thinking about it all night long (okay, until I downed my second pint, but it still counts...).

There is a Greek saying that goes like that: "You sleep on the bed that YOU have made". It means that there are some aspects in life that you can control. And if you can control something, at least be good at it...

I really can't imagine myself prancing around and drinking with my iPod filled with my dissertation. As said before, losing an iPod is stupid enough, losing an iPod with at least 3-5 months' work is unthinkable...

I really feel sorry about this person and I hope she finds her iPod but it's only her to blame if she fails her MSc/Phd/etc...

The show must go on...

2007-08-25T00:32:00.000Z

I wasn't able to comment on the last gameweek, but I think that enough has been said about the issue. It is a pity to see this kind of refereeing in the top football championship. Anyway, I have just finished working on my dissertation and I will now have time to keep an almost daily update.

Tomorrow's game HAS to be won. LFC has a relatively easy schedule until the Euro qualifiers break, so it'd be good to make the most of it.

My prediction on the lineup:

Reina
Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Arbeloa
Pennant, Alonso, Mascherano, Riise
Crouch, Torres

Given that Torres will not be needed for the Toulouse game, I'd bank on him starting. I wouldn't bank on Riise though, since I have a feeling about Babel starting. I am sure that Stevie G will not start since this is not a game that we need our injured captain to play.

Prediction on score: 2-0
Liverpool have not yet conceded a non-penalty goal so far, which is encouraging. Apart from that, this may sound weird but after two penalties in two games and all the hassle with last week's penalty, I really think the ref will think about it twice before awarding a penalty for Sunderland....

Mid-Summer Christmas Morning

2007-08-19T10:12:00.000Z

Right.

Brace yourselves Ladies and Gentlemen. It a Big Sunday today. Been looking forward to today all week. Man City - MAn Utd and Liverpool - Chelsea. Since I woke up - half an hour ago- I have the feeling of a kid waking up on Christmas day. Can't wait to rush under the Christmas tree and see what's waiting for me.

Appetizer: Man City - Man Utd

This will be exciting. It will be even more exciting for me since I have tickets for the game. I haven't studied none of the teams too careful in the past two weeks, but I'd expect United to play with Tevez as the only striker, getting help from Giggs and Scholes. The fact that Rooney and Ronaldo are not playing gives City a big chance to get some points from this game. I went to 4 City games last season: Sheffield, Newcastle, Chelsea and Liverpool. Apart from the Chelsea game in which Lampard scored a penalty, all the others ended 0-0. So I'm going to have a bet on a goal-less draw. I would expect, however at least one goal from City. On the other hand, United are desperate for the first win and what would be better than one at their rivals' home?

Main Dish: Liverpool - Chelsea

I'd expect a Liverpol line-up like this:

Reina
Finnan, Agger, Carragher, Arbeloa
Pennant, Alonso, Gerrard, Riise
Kuyt, Torres

There is a slight chance to see Babel or Benayoun at the wings and Mascherano instead of Alonso. Liverpool will definitely score. I'd even expect Fernando's first goal in the Premier League today. Final score? 1-0 or 2-1, but I wouldn't bank on it...

There is also a rumour going around about Gerrard not starting. I really doubt that, although it is possible to see him being subbed at about 70th minute if everything goes well....

On the Chelsea side, Terry is back, but I don't know whether he'll either start or give his 100%. Jose does not have many options at the centre-backs so expect Terry to start...

Desert: Rest

After all this action all day what could be better than watching the weekend's highlights and trying to sober up from all the beers you had...

You'll probably hear from me at the end of the week when -if everything goes well- I'll be done with my dissertation and have time to analyze my dull life...
Cheers

Dissertation(free_time) : Σ(free_time) = 0

2007-08-16T21:19:00.000Z

I can't believe how busy I've been during the last couple of weeks. I've been working on my dissertation for at least 6-7 hours per day and when I'm not in from of my computer writing, I will either be eating or sleeping.

Thankfully, I have been very punctual regarding my writing, which means that I will take it easier starting Sunday. Just to make a few points, though:

1. I was right on spot regarding the Villa - Liverpool game, apart from the left back where Arbeloa started, pushing Riise up front... Impressive..

2. I will be going to the City - United game on Sunday...( Come on City...! ) and will have to rush to the nearest pub to catch the Liverpool - Chelsea game. I will give a prediction regarding this game on Saturday if I'm done with my dissertation....

So, see you later!

Liverpool starting the season...

2007-08-10T01:16:00.000Z

In case you have not already realized, I am a Liverpool fan.

Get this straight: I am a Liverpool fan, from Athens, currently studying in Manchester....

Even better: I am a Liverpool fan from Athens who was IN MANCHESTER when Liverpool was in the Champions League final in Athens....

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(let me weep will you???)
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Okay, I'm back.
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Anyway, ever since I remember myself was a fan of Liverpool.
Liverpool and Olympiakos but the latter is an issue I'm still dealing with... :p

This summer Liverpool filled me with hope that I did not have during the last year.

First of all, we have a brilliant gaffer. Our manager is master in discovering talents, motivating the team as well as a brilliant tactician.

Our skipper is pure inspiration. Steven Gerrard is the best that English football has to offer today: leadership, power, genius...

After Liverpool being bought by Gillette and Hicks, we've been offered a big pile of cash to spend on transfers. Given what I said about Benitez, I do believe we've spent it wisely. We could use one more defender -espessialy on the left wing since my much beloved Riise sometimes forgets about his defensive duties- but I still trust the gaffer's choices...

We have one of the most promising strikers in Europe today (Fernando Torres) accompanied by players like Kuyt and Crouch that have proven that can get it done.
We managed to get one of Europe's most promising wingers - Ryan Babel- and a pacey midfielder like Benayoun.
Voronin has also proven to be a surprise free purchase.

Our first game is on Saturday against Aston Villa. If this was a mid-season game and Liverpool were contesting for the premier league, I wouldn't be as scared as I am now. Liverpool are known not to be able to make the most out of the first league games. If you also consider that 5 days later we face Toulouse for the Champions League qualifiers -an important cash injection- you will understand the reason behind my worries.

My wish is that the lads will take it easy, will not stress and start the title race confidently.
My fear is that the lads will strive to prove their determination to win the league this year, will stress and not deliver...

Just because I am superstitious, I will give a prediction on Saturdays game (most of my predictions are right normally) :
Liverpool's side (ALTHOUGH I HAVE NOT WATCHED ANY OF LIVERPOOL'S PRE-SEASON GAMES):

REINA,
FINNAN, CARRAGHER, AGGER, RIISE
PENNANT, ALONSO, GERRARD, KEWELL
KUYT, TORRES

Rafa will not fear attack but I also think we will not face a counter-attack problem: Carragher will be watching our back.

I think the score will be 2-1 for Liverpool. I have a feeling that Gerrard will score...

That's all for liverpool... see you on Sunday...!

Web designing or Web developing?

2007-08-10T00:33:00.000Z

I was recently reading a blog regarding web design which was arguing why text has taken a back seat to design ...

First of all I need to clarify my perspective: I, myself am a DEVELOPER, not a DESIGNER. I do not have what people call "an artist's touch", and definitely do not long for it. I consider myself to be what makes a DESIGNER design, what makes a BLOGGER blog, what makes an ACCOUNTANT account etc. I am what makes a machine move if you want... Relatively speaking.

My experience and education has taught me one thing: If your product is worth it, it will succeed. Especially in the Internet world, if a company with the homepage of Google can succeed, everyone can...

The blogger goes on to talk about the way a designer should write his text, the style of narration etc. I'm definitely not in the bandwagon of good designing principles etc. But I also do not undermine the power of a good design. I do believe however, that:

- If you are a good blogger and do not have a template created by a 12-year-old, you will not fail.
- If you have a good product/service and do not have a template created by a 12-year-old, you will not fail.

- If you DO NOT know what you are doing, a good design will not help you.

I am firm about the "IDEA" factor. it's all about what you have to offer. If you like what you offer and pay attention to it, you are bound to get a chance. It is when what you are looking for is immediate success and/or do not really care about your service when you go looking for presentation styles...

Perhaps talking about design is out of my range. Perhaps I have grown up so as to respect functionality rather than presentation (thank you mum!).

If you go 50 years back, newspapers and magazines would NOT be as good-looking as they are now if they didn't pay attention to DESIGN.

But then again... They still deliver the same service, don't they??

Make that smoker suffer!

2007-07-24T01:47:00.001Z

Smoking is bad. It's very bad. Naughty naughty naughty smoker. Tut tut.

There's a new smoking policy in England since the 1st of July. Smoking is prohibited from all public places. That includes bars, pubs, clubs, halls of residence ... actually any closed space in England. It is against the law to smoke virtually everywhere except outside. It's a policy with good intentions. If you are not a smoker you do not have to stand the smoke coming from a table next to you. If you also take into account the fact that about 500 people die due to passive smoking every year (which is a statistic that I'm quite interested to find out how it was obtained nevertheless), I completely understand this and I am willing to follow this rule in spite of the fact that it makes me enjoy having a drink much less.

Of course this policy applies to my hall of residence. It is now ILLEGAL to smoke in your room. Again, I am willing to have my smoke outside. I am about to quit anyway.

Just to make it clear, it is ENGLAND that we are talking about. The rainiest place on earth. The place where it rains daily regardless of the month. In my hall of residence, there is a small shelter right outside my block. This is where smokers smoke when it is raining (at least the smokers that do not wish to catch pneumonia). Today I just saw an announcement from the warden saying that due to the fact that smoke comes through the windows of some residents' flats, smokers now should be standing at least five meters from their block entrance. Yeah, that's right: In the rain! For your information: Due to insurance policy, the vast majority of the flats' windows are not allowed to be wide open, but rather approximately 15 centimeters. The half of your computer screen (if not even less).

Okay, I've stated that I am in favor of the whole anti-smoking movement in England right now. Just because of this kind of behavior, however, I feel obliged to revolt! Before applying for my residence, I was asked whether I was a smoker or not. Just like all the other smokers, I replied positively, which means that the Hall management was aware of the smoker's percentage (which judging from the number of Greeks here in Manchester, could not be low). I am not asking for special treatment, I am asking for consideration. There might be a point in trying to save someone from lung cancer by giving him pneumonia, but this "lesser of two evils" policy is just stupid.

I took it out of my system. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with pneumonia.

Football Evolving

2007-07-23T12:03:00.000Z

Football has changed throughout the years. It started as a hobby and became a profession. It evolved to become a means of expression for a group of people. It grew larger to become an expression of a whole country. Today, football is as commercialized as no other sport globally. Typical example of that is the recent transfer of David Beckham to L.A. Galaxy. In spite of the relatively low popularity of the sport in the States, Europe is on a constant update of the Englishman's status. Is he injured? Did he score? How was his training?

Europe is the land of promise for football today. The Champions League, the Premiership, La Liga - they're all markets with a lot of profit margin, something that has led a lot of businesses to hugely invest in European markets. This has both helped football evolve and not. It has helped it evolve by allowing clubs invest in their youth academies, build beautiful stadiums and improve hugely the experience of watching a football match. However, due to the amount of money at stake, there are a lot of cases where games become boring. Teams tend to follow more the Italian model of football: Score a goal and then just defend. Many people have condemned this, but my opinion is that there's nothing you can do, so just enjoy what you get.

But what happens when this attitude moves to areas and competitions that have always been about performance rather than result?

I recently watched the Copa America. A competition where the latin style of play is adopted by all participating teams resulting in beautiful spectacle. To be honest I was surprised by the teams' open style of playing and every game I was was exciting. All but the final.

Being a game between Brazil and Argentina, two nations whose rivalry has lived throughout the years, I expected to see something at least equivalent to (if not even better than) the games I had watched so far. I was wrong.

Brazil was missing their two great stars (Ronaldinho and Kaka') so some young players were brought in the pitch. Simply thinking, youngsters playing in a Copa America final would normally help the spectacle since they all would want to prove themselves in the typical Brazilian type of playing. Again I was wrong.

Brazil came in the pitch in a fully-defensive formation. They were marking as good as Italians and just relied on counter attacks to score. The game ended 3-0 for Brazil and all 3 goals came from counter attacks. Needless to say, only Argentina was trying to play creatively, but they were being blocked by the double layer of Brazilian defense. If that was a European Cup final, I would not complain. That's a style that Europeans tend to play. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. However, it was Brazil who was playing. A country notorious about its creative style and exciting dribbling.

Now, two days later, I watched an under-19 game between Greece and Spain. The group standings were such that if they drew, both teams progressed to the next round regardless of what happened in the other game of the group. In spite of their young age, the game's second half must have been less exciting than an accountant's daily schedule. Needless to say, the game ended 0-0.

If football has come to a point where the result is everything and everything else is sacrificed in favor of the final result, even in competitions of lower standards, then we are walking down a strange road. I do not know whether this will be very good for both the winning teams or the sport itself. Unless something is done, the next evolution of football will not be very popular...

Communication! Communication! Communication!

2007-07-20T02:38:00.001Z

When Tony Blair first became Prime Minister of Britain, in one of his first speeches he underlined his administration's goal to improve British education by his (in)famous motto "Education! Education! Education!". Apparently, according to his judgement, British education was something that dragged the country down.

If I consider my work/school/university environment as my area of administration and decide to improve things that would be one: "Communication! Communication! Communication!".

I consider myself to be clever. Not "cleverly" clever, but "stupidly" clever. A "cleverly" clever person is one who is able to judge "on-the-fly" ideas and propositions and assess whether or not he is capable of executing what has been proposed. He is able to schedule his workload in such way as not to have to overload at any point. A "stupidly" clever person is one who believes that sky's the limit for him and will accept anything offered to him without hesitating. "Hey, how hard can it be?". He ends up working 24/7 just because he wasn't smart enough to pre-schedule.

I believe this to be one of my greatest flaws and assets at the same time. I will take on anything only to find myself baffled in between projects trying to keep up with my schedule and not let anyone down. On the majority of the cases, I (and my projects) have survived this kind of situations without putting my reputation in jeopardy (and maybe even building it even more).

Today I realised that apart from a "stupidly" clever person, I am also a bad communicator. 50 days before submitting my dissertation, yesterday I e-mailed my supervisor regarding my progress so far. Apparently I did it in such a vague manner that the reply I received had me scratching my head puzzled. My supervisor was under the impression that I was far behind schedule and spent two whole paragraphs explaining to me terms in my dissertation that even someone remotely relevant to the subject is aware of (i.e. speaker IDENTIFICATION as in "the task of defining who the speaker is" VS speaker VERIFICATION as in "verifying that the claimed speaker is actually who he claims he is") and subtly urging me to be a bit faster.

When I read the whole correspondence between me and my supervisor I realised what the whole misunderstanding was about. So what I did was spend a whole hour to precisely define what I have done without using abbreviations and try to show him that I have not been slacking around but working my a$$ out lately. It was then when he replied saying that I am actually on a good way and pointed out some hints about what to do next.

You must be able to COMMUNICATE what exactly you have been doing in a project. Show off if you must. Market yourself and pay a little more attention to how you COMMUNICATE what you have been doing. As David Brent (played in a unique manner by Ricky Gervais) in "the Office" once said: "A company runs on efficiency of communication". At the end of the day if you are not able to COMMUNICATE in today's world, you are bound to build bad reputation or worse. So there you have it: COMMUNICATION! COMMUNICATION! COMMUNICATION!

Keep your utilities close and your users closer.

2007-07-16T10:10:00.001Z

As I have mentioned before, I am working for the network team of the University. It is not the most exciting job, but at some points trying to figure out what's wrong with the user's PC can be as interesting as traveling to the moon. The last user could not browse with her IE, but could connect with her Skype account. Visiting the user, I had the suspicion that checking her settings and firewall would do the trick. I was very wrong, however. Her computer (an XP machine by the way) was running about 20 applications at start-up, was incredibly slow and did not allow commands given in command line to be executed (ipconfig /all, ping etc). Wanting just to see if it is an IE-related problem, I disabled the firewall, installed Firefox and tried to run it. It did not however run. My next easy step was to install my favorite antivirus program and run a full system scan. This took me about 40 minutes. 40 boring minutes where we both tried to break the silence with smalltalk. The user told me that she had recently visited Cyprus, by the way ("beautiful country"). When the scan was finished, so was the awkwardness. The results however troubled me. Not a single virus found. Once the computer restarted I gave the firewall rules a thorough inspection. Nothing weird found there. I ran firefox and this time not only it ran, it also allowed browsing. That's were it hit me. It turned out that when the user had visited Cyprus, she was given a proxy in order to browse. She had meticulously hidden this fact from me. Naughty user. I restored this setting and she was ready to go. Everything running as smoothly as an overloaded XP machine can handle. Total time taken: 50 minutes of which wasted: 40.

At the end of the day, all that matters is correct communication with the user. Our whole conversation was around her skype account and the potential viruses she might have gathered rather than the last time she had to "change something as small as 4 numbers in a box"...

Note to self: Both MSN messenger and Yahoo messenger uses the "Internet Setiings's Proxy server", while Skype does not. That's bad for Skype. Even if it has a Proxy settings pane in it menu, it should all be centralized.

Think Different

2007-07-13T17:18:00.000Z

I am what you call "Apple-fanatic". I am in the "cult of Mac". I am one of those who'll spend hours arguing with you about what is better: a Mac or a PC.

My whole adventure with Apple started about 2.5 years ago. I was leaving for Iceland as an exchange student and I had to get a laptop to do my work when at home. Until then I was a "PC-fanatic". Not having used a Mac in my whole life, I was under the common impression that only artists would use a Mac, that it would be a pain in the a** to connect it to a network, that compatibility issues must be in the daily agenda etc. A friend of mine that had been somehow lured into the world of Macs introduced me to his iBook. It was a 12-inch G4 PowerPC running OS X Panther. The first thing that I thought when I saw it was "God it's beautiful". Just comparing the look and feel of a Mac running OS X to a PC running Windows XP (I've heard that this also applies to Vista, but I haven't seen the latest MS OS, so I'm not going to comment) makes you think how had you been using the Windows machine without injuring your eyes somehow.

I have to admit I was very skeptical at the beginning. "What about office?", "What about firefox?", "What about development?", "What about games?". The only question that wasn't completely satisfied by the answer it received was the last one. OS X has it's own version of Microsoft Office, OS X has the fastest browser called Safari, but firefox and Camino are also available. With the exception of .net, any major IDE has an OS X version plus OS X has XCode built-in. Games was an issue regarding Mac, but a number of the most popular games were being ported for OS X (mainly by Aspyr).

I have to admit I was feeling like gambling when I decided to buy my iBook. After using it for 2 years I was completely satisfied, except for the times when I wanted to play certain games and I found out that they were not ported for Mac.

2 months ago I bought my second laptop. My second Mac. A MacBook Pro. Now THIS is 100% satisfaction. Thanks to BootCamp, I have installed Windows. A move that when I completed felt like betraying my own beliefs. Now, a month later, I have all I could ever ask from a laptop:

1. Battery that lasts up to 5 hours (when working with OS X)
2. The most advanced OS (OS X)
3. The ability to boot with Windows and run that game/application that hasn't been yet ported for Mac

I could go into details (which I'd love to) and point out the advantages and disadvantages of having a Mac, but I'd lose my point: be flexible, think different. That's what matters

Singing in the rain...

2007-07-10T15:08:00.001Z

Okay, seriously, what's wrong with this weather? What's wrong in Manchester?

Before proceeding you should lookup the definition of Oxymoron. Once you have thoroughly understood what oxymoron means, go ahead and see this table about the weather in Manchester. In case you do not spot the oxymoron in this table, I urge you to take a look at August. August (along with July)is the hottest month of the year with temperature between 19 and 12. On the other hand, if you take a closer look, August is also the wettest month of the year (along with October). Following this pattern, July is the third wettest month of the year (along with December).

One might think that there is something wrong with the statistics, but this is happening and it is very weird seeing it actually happen. The temperature here is quite good. You do not feel cold, you can go out wearing just a cardigan with no problem. However, it is always cloudy. If you are lucky, you might see the sun for a couple of hours once a week, but be prepared to endure a rainy afternoon. It will definitely rain at some point in the day, so pray not to be caught coming back from buying groceries when that happens!

A pointless week...

2007-07-06T12:35:00.001Z

I have to say the last days have passed quite fast. Most of the gang left yesterday or are leaving today, so everyone has been throwing a farewell party. I -on the other hand- do not intend either to throw a party or leave for Athens. I do not think that going to Athens will help my dissertation, which has a lot of work to be done and has been my main concern for about two weeks now. Seeing the sun for a change and spending more than 4 hours without getting soaked up in the rain would be a nice change but while picking dissertation topics I was wise enough to choose a topic for which I had no initial knowledge of...

I will go to Ibiza, however! Me and some mates that are not going to Greece decided to take a 1-week break from working and have some fun. Hopefully everything will be as good as I imagine it.

Inspiration

2007-06-30T11:12:00.001Z

While working on my dissertation, a friend and fellow graduate student from my undergraduate university sent me an out-take from a greek tv talk show. The show was about the (notorious) $100 laptop (a.k.a. one laptop per child). The main talker of the show was our professor books have been awarded with software productivity awards, in spite of him being a big contributor to the open source community, it was his appearance on TV and him being referred as a "guru" on the subject in front of million Greek TV viewers that made me appreciate his contribution to the computing community even more. Maybe the reason underlying is the TV-centric model that my generation has grown up with. Maybe the reason was him being advertised on TV for his contribution. Whatever the reason, the outcome is one: Be inspired. Love what you do. Be passionate with what you do and good things will come.

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Windows and weather

2007-06-26T08:27:00.001Z

I am proud to be an owner of a brand new MacBook Pro with an Intel processor. For the apple-illiterate, this means that essentially any of the most popular Operating Systems may be installed on a Mac (OS X, Windows (all versions -including Vista), Linux). Now, I have been an OS X user for almost 3 years now and I firmly believe in the saying "Once you go Mac, you never go back". However, due to my needs for gaming and a certain software that I have only the Windows version and really need for my dissertation, I have installed Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. It hasn't been more than 2 months that I have installed Windows on my Mac and yesterday I received my first BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) for no apparent reason at all. Now THAT'S priceless!

Many mac enthusiasts say that there is no such thing as an OS X equivalent to the Windows BSOD. There is one, but after 3 years of using a Mac, it has only occurred to me once and there was a reason for that. "Crazy machines..." as a friend of mine would tell me...

Speaking of crazy... What's with the weather? People have drowned in England due to the weather, while in Greece today it's going to be a 44 degrees record-breaker...

8 months ago...

2007-06-25T11:49:00.000Z

It has been eight months since I last posted on this Blog. I cannot say that I have been that much busy, but for argument's sake let's just start over. I intend to update my status on a daily basis, but then again, I have never been that punctual in my life so we just have to see.

Exams are over. For good. I was under the impression that drastic changes would occur the moment I put the pen down after my last exam. The world would be brighter, birds would sing louder, and everything surrounding me would be as if extracted from a Broadway musical. NO. The world is the same, and the only singing birds just sing outside my window when I try to sleep or recover from a hangover (which I swear mum happens very very rarely).

I have started working on my dissertation now. It might just be me but the world now seems to be even darker than before. Jokes aside, Manchester has to be the best place to be a student this moment (well, depending on perspectives) since it hasn't stopped raining for a week now, and seeing the sun is celebrated around the halls as if it was new year's day.

Time's up. Have to start working again. Hopefully, now that I have timetabled the rest of the summer, I will be able to post in less than 8 months from now. Cheers!

God save the... Quiz

2006-10-05T17:53:00.000Z

That was another shocker. The english are loving Quiz-nights. It all started two weeks ago, a Tuesday night. Actually, it was not a regular Tuesday night. It was a Champions League Tuesday night. To be more precise, it was a Champions League Tuesday night with Manchester United playing. In Manchester.

Me and one of my mates went to "Oxford" to watch the game. We both expected the place to be crowded with teeth-missing, drunk, loud and angry Manchester United fans, or at least the plain ones. Instead, we found mixed-sex groups of five or six studying religiously copies of the same paper and listening carefully to the guy holding a microphone announcing questiongs. We shrugged and said "That's a weird place". Acting rather snobbish, we simply ordered our beers and watched the game isolated from any kind of human interaction.

I discovered the second piece of the puzzle last Sunday, when my Hall of Residence organized a quiz night. This time, we decided to be part of the community and took part. We actually reached rock bottom. I'm just glad that there was a question to name the Greek god of the sea and our answer sheet wasn't returned completely blank. Since my Hall of residence is an international one, the participation wasn't overwhelming, but still, I believe that all English residents (at least the ones I know) where there.

The last piece was found last Tuesday. We went out to have a nice cold beer, sit on a table and listen to some music. At least we got the beer right. All the tables we taken by groups of people concentrating and trying to solve the riddles announced by the host. Once again we were kind of alienated, but at least, we had a good time.

Apparently, in Manchester, Tuesday night means Quiz night and not even football can make the locals miss it.

Different cultures have different kinds of habbits. I am having difficulties even trying to imagine this event taking place back home. No. People would be way too "cool"-ish to participate.

Tomb Raider: Being Lara Croft

2006-10-02T20:48:00.000Z

OK, the title might seem like an extra from the Tomb Raider DVD or a new gaming title, but it was what I actually lived today.

Before I begin I should say that in order to make ends meet I am working for the University network team. What I actually do is to solve the users' problems connecting to the local network of the University of Manchester and eventually the Internet. The problems I encounter are mainly as simple as clicking a button, or running some commands from the students' computers. In case that none of those troubleshooting techniques work, I have to go to a room full of machinery, cables and lights (what technicians call "The switch room").

until today the problems assigned to me were what I call "the simple ones". Problems that I resolved by resetting some servers or by visiting the students for a couple of minutes. Today, though, it was different. Whatever I had tried had failed, and all the testings from my side made it obligatory to go to "The Switch Room". I must admit that I was intimidated by that room somehow. If you consider that pulling a wrong cable may cause about 100 students go offline and eventually lose your job, you would understand why I was a bit afraid by "The Switch Room". I, eventually, overcame my fear and asked the security guy to give me the keys to the switch room, which (according to a co-worker) was "somewhere at flat X". The security guy gave me the keys. They looked like keys to open a treasure box. I felt too proud to ask him where exactly in room X the switch room was, so I acted experienced, put the keys in my pocket and went on to "the quest for the holly treasure box".

Flat X was actually a flat. With people staying there. I knocked on the door but I got no reply. I used some other keys that the security guy had given me to open the main door and entered the flat. Everyone was I their rooms so I had all the communal areas to search for the room I was looking for. I opened some doors but nothing was there except for vacuums and mopsticks. I entered the kitchen but no luck there as well.

When I was about to call it quits and go back to the security lodge to ask for the room's whereabouts, I noticed a hatch on the kitchen's room. "No way", I thought. "How am I supposed to get up there?". I moved some tables and chairs -trying not to make noise, wake the residents and have to reply to the question "What are you doing?" with "I haven't a clue"- and climbed high enough to take a closer look of the hatch. It only had one hole, which didn't actually looked like a keyhole, but nevertheless I put my weird-looking keys in and turned a couple of times. I heard some metal turning and the hatch was open. The "door" opened to reveal a weird looking thing. I had to pull it down to become a ladder.

Without knowing what I was about to encounter, but positive that I was on the right track, I climbed the ladder. When I reached the top, I couldn't see a thing. It was completely dark. I could recognize some lights glowing at the other side of the room, but I couldn't tell if my next step was going to be on solid ground or not. It was time to use my brand new cellphone with flashlight capabilities. I made my way to "The switch room" and made the tests I had to do.

I had done it. I used all my skills to discover where the switch room was, to find my way to the actual switches and to make the proper tests I needed to do. And the most important thing was that I had done all of that without scaring the flat's residents. I was something between Lara Croft and James Bond.

I was smiling my way down the weird ladder only to discover 2 of the flat's residents looking at me fearful dressed in their pijamas ready to run scared outside the building. They had just seen a guy climbing down from a staircase they didn't even know existed smiling weirdly.

"I am working for the network team, sorry to disturb you" I said quietly while folding the staircase back into the hatch.

"Damn, it would be really cool if that just hadn't happened" I thought...

We follow...Football

2006-10-01T14:46:00.000Z

So, we had nothing to do on a Saturday and decided to go to an FC United's football match. If you are not aware of the club, it's full name is Football Club United of Manchester and it was created by Manchester United's fans that opposed the club's buy-out by an American entrepreneur - Glazer. Their first season started last year at North-West Division 2 and where promoted to North-West Division 1 this year.

The opponent was called Bacup Borough FC. From the first second we entered the stadium, we encountered something totally different from what we were used to back home. Women and children, teenagers and old people, were having a good time. Before the game had started, all the fans were chanting and laughing. During the game, I did not listen to anyone swearing or claiming that the referee is against them or something.

When the second half started, the opponent goalie went to the goalposts nearer to the main fans' core. He was actually joking with the fans. At the end of the game, he was named as man of the match, and since he was a bit overweight, all the fans chanted "Fatty Man of the match... Fatty Fatty Man of the match" and then cheered him....

It was the first time for me to be to an English football match and I must say that despite the fact that the specific game I watched was the less important I will have ever watched in my whole life, I must say that I enjoyed it more than a lot more important games.

On the other hand, budget-wise the whole day consumed the savings I was struggling to make the whole week, but I am not yet off-budget, and that's a big thing!

2006-09-29T11:02:00.000Z

Liverpool-Friendly

Two nights ago I watched Liverpool v. Galatasarai at a pub. It was the first time I actually went to an English pub to watch football and it couldn't have been better. I avoided the previous night's mistake and went to a non quiz-friendly and smoking-allowed pub with about one large-screen wherever you directed your gaze at. And also a couple of projectors. People started showing up about 45 minutes before kick-off and I was quite amazed to see people at Manchester walking up and down Oxford road wearing a Liverpool shirt with the name "Gerrard" and number 8 typed on the back. Since I was working until 7, I went to the pub by myself. My mates would come later on. By the time the game had started the pub was foul of Englishmen having a laugh and a beer. The second surprising incident I encountered was when Galatasarai had their first good shot of the game. There were some people cheering for the turkish team. "Hmmm, Turks... " I thought and kept on watching the game.
As time passed by and Galatasarai had more and more chances, I realized that there weren't so many turks I thought, but rather some Manchester United fans that would cheer for any team but Liverpool. The amazing thing was that not once did a Liverpool fan swear or whatever to a Manchester United fan or vise versa. Especially during the last minutes that the whole game was hanging by a single thread and everyone was quite emotional. People were just enjoying the game the way it is supposed to be enjoyed.

I can definitely say it: It was one of the best football nights ever... Until the next one, I guess.

I returned home having the munchies and decided to have a tuna. The container usually says stuff like "Suitable for Vegeterians" and "Very hot".

This time it read "Dolphin Friendly".

What did this mean??? Why would someone appreciate a product that says "Dolphin-Friendly"??? And what was dolphin-friendly?

1. The container was dolphin friendly. So if you happen to throw it to the sea after you have eaten the tuna, the container was only made out of ingedients made of substances that are hurtful to the dolphins' enemies

2. The specific tuna in the container was quite friendly towards the dolphins and wanted everyone to know by writing it on his tombstone

3. Being a dolphin maybe something like being a "fruit" in sea-talk. So, the specific tuna (or even maybe the flock of tunas that was captured) was dolphin friendly as in gay-friendly.

I can think of a lot different interpretations of the "dolphin-friendly" thing, but I honestly can't think of a reasonable one.

2006-09-26T16:28:00.000Z

So, I'm at the bus stop, waiting for bus No. 50 to take me home from the University struggling to keep my eyes open when I see a cute English girl approaching alongside with a dark-skinned guy. He was not black but rather Indian-looking. "I thought the English are only friendly with the foreigners when drunk..." I thought humorously, and went back to reading METRO about the sporting activities last night.
The bus was -quite surprisingly- a couple of minutes late according to my cell-phones clock and so I raised my eyes to waiting to see the double-lorry coming. Not only did I not see the bus, but what I saw, took me by surprise. Instead of seeing a furious bus running, trying to catch up with the timetable on the bus stops, I saw the English girl kissing that guy. I thought I was more open-minded than that, but I took a better look to make sure this Indian-looking guy was not white-colored. Whenever I think about my reaction, I go mad about myself. I actually had to walk closer to the couple in love to hear his accent and either put his in the "Locals" group (that is English) or the "Rest of the world" group. I didn't find out just because when I realized what I was doing I stepped back and -honestly- tried not to bang my head on the wall because of how short-minded I was.
When I was back home, I never considered myself a racist, but on the other hand, I never experienced a similar event. I guess that it is natural for someone to recognize what's different, and maybe even be afraid or intimidated by that. It is one's option either to do something, or close within one's self and build up on that.

Something more joyful.

I did my finances last night. Since I'm having a lot of guests visiting me on October, I, from now on, am on a strict 6.5 pounds per day budget. If you subtract the tickets to/from University, we are down on a 4 pounds per day. Given that I have also set a 20 pounds per week budget for groceries, it's 4 pounds for candies or beers. Even though I am a huge fan of sweets, I think I'll go with the beer. Which means that I am allowed to have 1 pint and a half per day on average. It's football nights tonight and tomorrow, so I think I'll start cutting beers from Thursday. What about Fridays and Saturdays? Hmmm... Well... I guess a 10 pounds shopping per week won't let me starving....