Bruno Silva

My feelings about Forwarded E-mails

Now think twice before forwarding any “funny e-mails” to me.

Pop Up!

O Pop Up já se encontra a todo o gás! Começou no ISTE, ontem, hoje e amanhã, e vai percorrer diversas faculdades do país! E o que é o Pop Up?

“Esta é uma pergunta que, provavelmente, deverás estar a fazer a ti próprio desde que entraste no site! Afinal, o que é o Pop Up!? É, acima de tudo, uma grande (GRANDE) festa, mas simultaneamente um evento em que os estudantes que compareçam tenham acesso a formação e ferramentas que os ajudem a chegar mais longe, em que os temas, os conteúdos, e tudo o mais é completamente adaptado às necessidades / desejos destes.(…)“

Fonte: Site oficial do Pop Up

Como já disse o Pop Up encontra-se no ISCTE, conta com uma bolha insuflável onde se pode jogar X-Box, comer pipocas, realizar o registo no site para o sorteio de Smarthphones HTC, se forem simpáticos podem ter uma t-shirt e pins oficiais do evento Encontra-se presente uma pessoa da MegaFM para passar música. O que é excelente, porque existem puffs para o pessoal se sentar na conversa ou simplesmente a curtir o som.

Pipoca Sound System?… É a máquina onde estão as pipocas, e de onde sai a música. Weird, hum?

A adesão do pessoal do ISCTE tem sido excelente, todos têm curiosidade de saber o que se passa, e são imensos os repetentes que nos intervalos passam por lá. Tem sido realmente uma festa.

O evento pode ser acompanhado no blog oficial. As galerias de fotos também contam com uma actualização quase constante. Para o pessoal do Twitter, sigam http://twitter.com/thisispopup.

Não deixem de ver os passatempos que vão surgindo, já houve premiados!

MCTS - Windows Workflow Foundation

Yesterday I had a nice surprise in my e-mail inbox! I passed in the certification exame I took in January. It is great news, since I just took this exam just as a first time experience with Microsoft Certification Exams.

I took part in the Beta Program of this exam, so I took it for free. And another great thing was the background that the preparation gave me in workflow engines, pretty useful now that I am learning about Microsoft BizTalk.

A great book that I read was Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation Step by Step.

More details about the certification can be found in the Preparation Guide.

Miniclip.com - Nintendo Wii

Finally I’ve got my own Nintendo Wii console. What can I say about i? Fun, fun, fun!!! I have Wii Sports and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. You can take a look at my wish list at IGN.com.

I spent 500 wii points (valued in about 5 €) to get a web browser on my Wii. It is powered by Opera and it works pretty well. Nevertheless I hope that Nintendo releases a small keyboard like the X-box 360 keyboard. It is pretty hard to type using the Wiimote (and tiring too).

While testing the browser capabilities, I went to a website that I knew that had a lot of flash clips. I was glad to found out that Miniclip.com has support for Nintendo Wii! When you access this website using a Wii, you see a list of games compatible with your console. You’re are able to play them using your Wiimote. Pretty great!

I look forward to see WiiWare working! It is coming soon. My Wii Shop is already updated to support it.

onAIR - Adobe Air Tour Europe 2008 - Madrid

Last weekend I had a great time at Madrid (Spain), sponsored by West Icon, the company which I work for. The goal of this trip was to learn more about Adobe Air in, as a follow up action of the Flex Camp seminar at ISCTE which had a great impact in the company perspective about the impact of Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s) on the web. During the last couple of weeks we’ve been starting to work with Adobe Flex and Adobe Air in a new product (still top secret ). onAIR tour event was great to get some tips about nice functionalities of Adobe Air. This was the first event of the European tour and it went pretty well.

We went to Madrid by car. A loooong trip. we arrived on Saturday, and headed to Parque Warner. It was great! I just love Superman, and because of that I just love the fountain bellow. The Superman roller coaster was pretty awesome. I really felt like flying.

The weather was great. And during this season, there isn’t a lot of people in the park. The longest wait we had was about 15 minutes, in Superman roller coaster. I can’t even imagine how crowded this place can be in Summer… We paid 25 € per person. This is the price when entering into the park after 4:00pm (it closes at 10:00pm). During this time of the year, it is plenty of time to visit the park. The place is beautiful, and makes you feel like you’re in a Warner film. You can to the Daily Planet, or visit Bat-cave! I really liked the Wild West area too. A lot of emotions and excitement can be achieved in the several attractions like the roller coasters. I even saw Batman driving his Bat-car in front of Gotham City city hall! Children were delighted to take photos with him! Jerry was in the streets too. I wonder where was Tom… He wasn’t chasing him.

In the photo bellow you can see Atocha train station. It is pretty big, and really beautiful. It is the central point in public transportation in Madrid (unfortunately you may know it only because of the terrorist attacks at March 11th…).

Right next to Atocha station, there is a great art center, called Museo Nacional Reina Sofia. We were pretty lucky, because the entry was free, and there was a temporary exhibit of Picasso paintings (The collection of the National Museum Picasso of Paris). But those that I really loved were Salvador Dali’s paintings. Madrid is a pretty nice city, but I hate Spanish food, and I prefer Barcelona rather than Madrid. Nevertheless, it is worth to visit, and I really mean it.

onAIR event was pretty nice. Since this was the first event of the European tour, the sessions weren’t recorded yet. But because Portuguese people are awesome, riaPT (Rich Internet Applications Portuguese Community) guys recorded the sessions by their own, and they are available in their blog.

You can take a loot at the agenda in the official website. I only have one complaint: the event was supposed to be in English, but there were some sessions in Spanish… Luckily it was pretty easy to understand.

During the breaks I was able to try Guitar Hero for X-Box 360. It is nice, but I wouldn’t buy it. Maybe a friend of mine will, and then I can enjoy it. I also playing Wii Sports in the Wii that was available in the Gaming area.

IST Taguspark abre as portas da Ciência e Tecnologia

“O Instituto Superior Técnico, Campus do Taguspark, apresenta um dia diferente, em que jovens do Ensino Básico e Secundário, pais e professores vão poder contactar com a Ciência e Tecnologia.

O Instituto Superior Técnico, Campus do Taguspark, convida jovens dos 6 aos 18 anos, pais e professores a participarem num dia diferente. A jornada, dedicada à temática “Dia da Técnica e da Escola Aberta na Universidade”, decorre no próximo dia 29 de Março, Sábado, entre as 09h15 e as 16h00, nas instalações do IST-Taguspark, e vai permitir aos jovens conviver com a ciência e tecnologia através de experiências, jogos pedagógicos e didácticos. Está ainda previsto que as crianças presentes possam estabelecer contacto com o astronauta brasileiro Ten. Cor. Marcos César Pontes, através de videoconferência.

Os alunos do IST-Taguspark são convidados a participar nesta iniciativa, ajudando na recepção e acompanhamento dos participantes externos. Agradeço que quem estiver interessado me contacte por e-mail.”

In Tagus Digital Identity

Excelente iniciativa. Então era esta a causa do frenezim de hoje no campus!