Lorem Ipsum or something like it

Adobe just lunched Social!

2012-09-06T18:51:00.001+02:00

Just about an hour ago, Adobe added to their Digital Marketing Suite a new member, Adobe Social. This new product will help companies with their online social media endeavors. Adobe Social "combines listening with engagement tools, advertising and analytics, all in this one package. But more importantly enables brands to actually determine whether or not social media activity is having true business impact." declared Lawrence Mark, Product Marketing Manager, Adobe Social.

I will be interesting to see how this new tool is going to shape the online social media activity of the major brands.

Reversing Paralysis - Spinal Stem Cell Injections

2012-09-05T00:13:00.000+02:00

Well this news struck me so hard I just needed to break the silence. Seems that a company in California developed a new medical procedure that helps paralyzed patients regain feeling in their previously affected body parts.

New Scientist reports that 3 patients are participating in a trial involving this treatment. They were administrated 20 million neural stem cells directly into their spinal cords. The stem cells came from donated fetal brain tissue. The patients also received immunosuppressive drugs to reduce the risk of rejection.

Before the treatment none of the patients had any feeling below their nipples. After six month from the procedure, two of them have now regained feeling on their chest, being able to sense touch down to their belly button.

The initial results of the trials have been presented on Monday in London at the annual meeting of the International Spinal Cord Society. Another 9 patients are awaiting to start the trials with this procedure, having less extensive paralysis compared to the first 3 patients.

Despite the positive results, it is still early to break the champagne and break our backs knowing that there is a treatment out there. But one can only hope that everything turns out pink in the end.

A Political Refugee From the Global Village - an Englishman in Bucharest: An outpost of civilisation

2012-04-04T22:19:00.001+02:00

A Political Refugee From the Global Village - an Englishman in Bucharest: An outpost of civilisation

My respects to the writer! Romania really needs the face-lift, not that much physically, but psychologically.

Writing again... but no here.

2011-10-15T19:15:00.003+02:00

As some of you might know I have been writing this past year in the Tatar2India blog over on the Wordpress side. But brought it to a full stop when I finished my India experience.

Now I have started a new blog called "Endless Blabber". It's not a big project, but rather something to keep me writing, keep me busy.

I will be writing there about life, my own experiences, how I perceive the world, about funny/interesting things that happen to me... about world news that catch my attention... anything I feel like I have a say about and feel that any of you might be interested in.

Hope you will enjoy reading it.

Waiting for you on the other side.

Over and out.

Reading again...

2010-08-30T02:40:00.001+02:00

It has come to my attention for some time now that I haven't read a book for quite a while now... Not that I had a lack of recommendation inputs from people who do read books, but I just didn't quite find any of the recommendations ear-catching, if I can say so.

Don't get me wrong... I like reading, but lately I kind of got closer to reading technical materials, and found it easier to get the materials from the internet rather from printed books. And of course the topic that got me caught up lately, getting to grasp special relativity and quantum mechanics in order to finally get to understand what quantum electrodynamics is all about, is kind of topic that you don't really find too many books that explain it in such a way that an economics graduate would find it easy to understand and the only way to unlock it is to research it thoroughly on the internet (wikis, forums, blogs... even connect with some theoretical physicists and get them to answer some of your questions).
<<Excuse the long and seemingly never-ending sentence>>

Today, no special day in any way, I found myself, after my parents and sister went to sleep, still awake and not feeling quite sleepy as usual.

Popped up the cover of the laptop. Checked my email. Nothing interesting. Signed out. Hit Stumble. A rather funny page appeared. Text only. I was a excerpt from a book of Douglas Adams. Although it was a page-full, I went quite fast through it. I was quite light reading. Cookies it was called. By the end of it my brain was already begging for more.

I researched a bit about the author and the book the cookie story was from. The story was actually part of a posthumous collection of previously unpublished materials of the author. I decided that it would be a good idea to start from the beginning.

I found out that the first book Douglas Adams published was actually a book that was recommended to me in numerous accounts and I actually had it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Didn't think too much, opened it up. Started reading. I was somewhere at 30th something page realized that I actually enjoyed reading it. Up to that moment I was too caught in the story to notice...

By the time I got to page 66, two hours had already passed. You might say it's a long time (depending on your reading speed)... but I didn't even feel the time pass.

Little side note: When it comes to reading fiction I like to take my time with it... unlike when reading technical books, where I might find myself going through vast course books in less than one hour, although it might seem as half a day to me.

Don't really have anything to do all day these days... so I guess that I could finish this first book by the time I leave the country... (that's another matter to be detailed in another post... might also start a blog for the one year relocation... I'll stop here - too much info already)

Lightning strikes!

2010-07-24T16:52:00.000+03:00

It's good to know how lightning strikes... if you are targeted... or if you might be the one to strike someone with a lightning bolt.

This can be applied in any situation... for hiking to daily business life.

Think about this. You risk getting struck by lightning when ascending fast (both altitude and hierarchy) and having a positive charge (positive electrical charge or positive mind set). But who might hit you with the lightning bolt... negatively charged, descending entities (be it a cloud or a person/entity being low down and having a negative mind set).

Think positive! You don't know when you might accidentally strike someone with a lightning bolt because of a negative thought.

It sucks finishing second...

2010-07-12T14:33:00.000+03:00

Of course every sport is different... but in football ("soccer" for Americans) championship's case, it sucks finishing second. Let's take it from the top.

You finish the championship wining the final match. You get the the gold trophy and medals. Your country has a fiesta (or whatever form of celebration you can come up with).

You finish the championship loosing the final match. You get the silver medals. Everybody is disappointed, depressed. No fiesta, no nothing. Everybody goes home.

No this bit is the interesting part. You finish the championship wining the third place playoffs (or the small final as some might call it). You get the bronze medals. Your country is partying! Everybody is happy. People dancing naked in the plaza. Party lasts till morning. One party girl said: "It would have been cool to beat Spain and go to the final. But even third place is not that bad." Thumbs up for them!

WTF!!?

Is it really not about playing? Not even about the place you finish on? Could it only be about the result of your last game?

And another thing coming to mind when I see the World Cup chart... so... NED beats URU, ESP beats GER, GER beats URU (so URU is last out of the 4), ESP beats NED (so ESP is best out of the 4)... but wait... which is better GER or NED? Single elimination sucks too!

Anyways! I was hoping for The Netherlands to win the World Cup... but hey!... second place is not that bad. So NED loosing the final didn't stop us partying all night!

Playing...

2010-07-08T14:32:00.001+03:00

Yesterday I found out that I really miss playing... and by this I don't mean computer games... playing simple kids' games... While walking down the street with a friend I saw a Nestea Outdoor Ad, mounted in a bus station. It had a sliding puzzle. Solving it, you would get the Ad. (of course you had a scale model for reference)

It was all scrambled up... and at first I thought that it was just a display... and not really a working puzzle. But then I came closer and managed to move one of the pieces... it already had my whole attention. I was compelled to solve it. (although I was running late... the last semifinal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup...) It took me and my friend some 10 minutes to solve it... and it was fun!

It really made my day.

City walls

2010-07-07T12:22:00.003+03:00

I want to share with you a song that I really like

Ianizer & Lemethy - City walls
Ianizer & Lemethy - City walls by Ianizer and Lemethy

The Helmet

2010-07-07T12:08:00.000+03:00

Today I woke up with an urge to write. It's 10 AM and I can't sleep anymore.

I look around and I see my mobile phone. I remember a conversation yesterday about my health. I was being told that alcohol is not quite the best treatment... Maybe I can get the other party to make me quit drinking... and in the process I could make them quit smoking...

You'd think that if you fall down out of the 1st floor window (~4m) strait down with your back on the cement, hitting also your head in the process... with no protection gear (uncontrolled fall, no parkour moves)... you would break your back and die (nope, wrong! been there, done that... but that's not the point).

Now you go to a protection gear seller. You want to engage an activity that (without protection gear) would most probably put your life in danger, but you want to protect yourself. Per say you buy a helmet. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Instead of avoiding those life threatening activities... humans invented the helmet!... so they can just put their life in danger while having a degree of "protection".

So you say: "I love adrenaline"... Try getting some traditional in-bed adrenaline. I comes with bonus euphoric chemicals. And with a bit of luck you get out of it unharmed (I'm only saying this because reportedly there have been some incidents during the "in-bed adrenaline rush").

I will stop here. It's getting "late" and I haven't even had my breakfast yet...

Google in my home... on the TV screen

2010-05-23T23:15:00.000+03:00

Google is invading my house!!! Help!!!I already have Google in my bedroom... in my PC... Google search, Google Chrome web browser, using Google maps quite often... Gmail daily, chatting in my email account... Blogging right now from their platform... and all of this right from my bedroom.. (even on the road but that's another matter...)
Now Google is trying to "invade" my living room too... They announced Google TV. It is a Intel Atom based platform running a Google Chrome web browser on an Android OS right on your TV screen. What more can you want? Well they enable you to find and organize all your favorite online shows (sports events, music, movies, funny clips you can find on YouTube... and even live shows), in order to make it easier for you to keep track of and watch them.

Can't wait to see what they come up with next to "invade" my kitchen and bathroom...

Synthetic DNA research banned

2010-05-23T22:08:00.003+03:00

So scientist have just created the first living cell controlled entirely by synthetic DNA, and their research has been banned in the US.Yeah... these real world programmers have been stopped in their tracks by some bureaucrats. Thumbs up for the US... NOT!
Read more about the breakthrough on BCC News.

Google PAC-MAN Doodle

2010-05-22T02:22:00.006+03:00

30 years of PAC-MAN...Google celebrated this by changing their home page logo with a fully interactive flash version of the PAC-MAN game. Another thumbs up for Google!
EDIT: For those of you who missed it, you can download it here.

Searching for books...

2010-05-22T01:44:00.006+03:00

There are a lot of books out there that either don't get enough attention or are sometimes out of our reach. We search for them on the internet in hopes that we find it...I have previously posted some more or less shady book download websites. Now I am going to tell you about another website where you can find books (and more), as they say "exclusively in the fact-finding purposes". I guess that stands as their protection against the copyright law. I am talking about AvaxHome.

A very nice and organized website. Each publication has an image, free download link, and details (including ISBN, which is good for quickly searching a book). Books are organized by Language, Skill and Category.

What else can I say? Enjoy!

A time-lapse experiment

2010-05-04T20:23:00.004+03:00

Watch in full screen please!

Photograpy by eXeSS

Music by Steven Gutheinz

Toilet sign fail

2009-11-04T16:05:00.003+02:00

Please keep cleaning our toilets!

On the A2 highway, in a toilet (might just be in all of them... didn't check), you can find this sign...
I'm sure they meant KEEP CLEAN... but translating word by word from Romanian... you definitely get KEEP CLEANING.

Creativity / Experience ?

2009-10-08T18:15:00.002+02:00

I think that experience is closely related with being creative...

How is that? Well... creativity is about solving problems... about finding solutions to a given problem...
Now... let's think of a situation where you have a problem at work... the boss wants you to solve it... You have never encountered that exact problem before... What do you do? You start thinking how to solve it... Unconsciously your brain starts a similarity check with your past experiences... and when it find something... the conscious is like: "Wow! I have this great idea!... let's try this...!" And you solve the problem... everyone says.. "Dude! that was pretty creative of you!"... but no one... no even you... really realize on the spot that it was somehow related to some past experience of yours... even if that experience was you playing with your construction blocks as a baby...

Bar code :)

2009-10-07T10:52:00.006+02:00

I love bar codes...

And I love Google :)

But today I love Google more cause they turned they logo into a bar code doodle!

HTC Magic Stop Motion

2009-08-24T15:02:00.010+02:00

view full post

Vreau putina magie in buzunarul meu.

(Want some magic in my pocket.)

Post scris pentru concursul "Imi doresc un HTC Magic", organizat de Gadgeteer.ro si Vodafone Romania.

Hitchhiking adventure

2009-08-06T19:01:00.002+03:00

Last week I was in vacation as I already told you... I was in the mountains... Vatra Dornei... and on my way back I decided that I want to get home for free... somehow... At first the idea was to make "blatu'" on the train... that is go without the ticket and pass unnoticed by the ticket controllers. So at about 4 pm while everybody else had their tickets ready... me and a friend got on the train with no ticket.. :) Shame on us... (Kids.. never... I repeat... never do this! under no circumstances...) But as the name of the post suggests it... that didn't go as planned...

Even worse... we got face to face with the controllers right after the first station... In order to spare our colleagues, that had paid the ticket, from any problems with the controllers we decided to leave our luggage with them and get of the train at the next station. Said and done...

But what to do next? Well we thought that we might catch the train at some next station and buy tickets... but that wasn't a good (free of charge) idea... Anyways we needed to get ourselves moving... so just as we get out of the train station we see a car waiting at the railroad crossing (train in station... they had to wait a bit longer...) So we started running towards the car... hopefully they could take us closer to our destination... where ever that was...

So we got to the car... asked the driver if they could take us anywhere on the way of the train... they said that they are going in that direction ... but they would stop at village not too far from a train station... That was better than no ride... so we took it. The car was a local old model DACIA 1300 :) But the driver... he was one of a kind... he thought he was playing Need for Speed in real life... with drifts and all... especially that he had nice curved mountain roads (serpentine windings)...
Anyways... we got safely to the destination (free of charge)... So we are here... it's about 5.30 pm ... in the middle of nowhere... we have to hitchhike our next ride... A jeep passes us by... nothing... probably full... it had tinted windows... Look there a truck!... maybe it will stop... (or not... like we have waited only for a few seconds... how lucky can we be?...) And it stops... We ask the driver where is he headed... by the looks of it we could reach faster another train station for the second train our group is supposed to take a few hours later... Said and done... After a few hours of chatting, joking... telling our life's stories... checking train hours with the station, with friends/relatives that were home and had internet access... we end up behind another truck... but me and my friend were to busy chatting to notice that the truck had Constanta plates... good thing the driver had a keen eyesight and notice before we got in front of it... He called up the driver of the other truck on the radio and asked him where is he headed... the driver replied he is heading home... :) but where is home for the driver... lucky for us it was actually Constanta :) The our driver asked if he could take us all the way to Constanta... He said he don't usually take hitchhikers... but this time... as the request came from a colleague... he will make an exception... We have our next ride all the way to Constanta... and it's only about 9 pm.

He said the wants to make a halt to eat something... and we could make the change there. Said and done... after a few hours we made the halt... ate some... good food... and when we wanted to leave... me and my friend thought we could cover the bill so that we'd repay the truck drives for the ride. The truck drivers kindly refused to accept us paying the bill for them and they said that it's their pleasure to help us... and after all having someone to talk on a long trip is also a good thing... So from there for another 2 or 3 hours I rode in the Constanta truck and my friend rode in the first one. After that the first truck came to a halt and we continued the way with the Constanta truck... We arrived in Constanta at about 5 am.

The train with our luggage is due to arrive at the station at 7 am... if it arrives on time. We got to the station... waited a bit... The train is here... it's 7.15 am and I have my luggage... and I have arrived in Constanta free of charge... Weee :)

Then again...

2009-07-31T21:29:00.004+03:00

... some planning is better than no planning ...

There are situations when if you do not plan anything... you shouldn't expect anything to happen. Especially if it's one of those days when you got to bed very late... and all your body wants to do is sleep, sleep and again sleep... (sleeping does not mean you are doing something.. :) ... just in the situation when you have a very tight schedule and you really need to plan sleep too...)

So some planning is good. If you feel that planning makes your life too strict... takes a toll of your freedom... but still you don't want to stay all day in bed... or watch TV with no good reason... then you should definitely do a bit of planning... in terms of things you want done by the end of the day... leaving some flexibility to the time and the way you are going to do those things.

But if you can't handle a flexible planning... as in you still end up in front of the TV... or if you don't get even half of the planned things done by the end of the day... then you should definitely opt for a more detailed planning... assuming you are a person interested in getting things done... especially if you got to read this part of the post...

Also there is the part of long term planning and having a vision of your own... your very own purpose in life... which you should have no matter if you like to do things nicely planned, partly planned or just on the brink of time...

Planning SUX Bigtime! - Vacation

2009-07-30T15:32:00.004+03:00

This doesn't mean that I don't support planning in business... but in my personal life I have come to realize that when ever I plan something... more or less things don't seem to turn out the way they were originally planned...

I am now on vacation... I have planned this vacation 2 months ago... I had it all planed... then boom... I was left alone... the people I was supposed to go with could not get days off from work and other important stuff...
And that's when the "circus" started... since then, plans for the vacation have changed ten times over... from a trip to Paris... to seaside cottage.. to 5 star hotel in seaside resort in Turkey... to a week in the mountains... The last one being the final one... the one where I am right now...
But the decision for it came one day before the departure...
Three days before the departure I was in sitting at home... it was my third day of vacation... and still no viable plans for the rest of the vacation... I think to myself that this vacation is ruined... I go out... meet some friends... it was the birthday of a dear friend of mine... On my way there I stop at a book gallery which was open for the weekend... didn't know about it... but I some how landed there... I met a friend there ... suggested we go that night to a resort and party a bit... that was fun.. almost no planning... by I left the birthday meeting with the friends.. it was to late to go to party ... so we decided that we leave it for the next day..

Two days before departure... sleep all day... wake up... eat... start calling friends... no one is available for a night's party except the friend I met at the book gallery... Said and done... we leave for the resort... party all night...

One day before departure... still no idea what to do with the rest of my vacation... Thought "what the heck" ... let's party again all night... called up the friend.. found online a dear old friend who was also in vacation... asked her to join...
Checking my email... saw that the people in @LC Constanta are going next day to Vatra Dornei, in the mountains for the Motivation Seminar. Called up the organizing committee to check if I can still join them from the first day.. All is OK.. I can join them. No luggage prepared... I still have a night's party in front of me... said and done.. we partied all night... ended the night in the emergency room of the closest hospital... my dear old friend twisted her ankle. Nothing serious the doctor says..

Next day... the day of the departure... I am having a hard time waking up... finally I am up... I go shopping... have some things missing that I would really need on this trip... The organizing committee is calling me to see if I'm awake... :D last time I almost missed the train because I was sleeping .. and didn't hear the alarm :)

Two hours to the gathering at the station... I still didn't get back home from shopping... no luggage prepared yet...
One hour and a half to the gathering at the station.. I get home and start shoving stuff in my backpack... hopefully don't forget something important...
Half an hour to the gathering at the station... I am going to buy some booze... couldn't find absinthe... vodka will have to do the job...
I get in time to the station... Looks like it works fine even without too much planning...

After 15 hours by train we are here... :) bit chill but it's the mountains... Yesterday was all sunny... even though we were so tired after the train trip... we still managed to run around the city for like 5 hours or so.. doing a scavenger hunt... In the evening it all ended with a sharing of the experience of the 3 teams that participated at the scavenger hunt.. and a party!... some weird twister.. "poor man's twister" no colored floor... just a roll of duct tape... and we would throw that around the floor and people would have to put a part of their body on the spot where the roll landed.. :) and other crazy party games... But this is a story for another time...

Should stop here... you got the idea... tried to plan stuff didn't work out... made stuff at the brink of time... and it all worked out quite well... :)

The Elegant Universe

2009-07-11T13:56:00.004+03:00

Don't really know why... but for some time now I am more and more interested in physics in general and more specifically in quantum mechanics and string theory... all though this is far away from my field of expertise.

I have been doing a lot of research on the internet... reading a lot of materials... watching a lot of documentaries on this subject... and the more I read the more I want to find out more... It's quite addictive...

Now you would think... why is this so interesting... well maybe because they (the scientist) over time came up with many theories to explain how various things work... mechanics, therodynamics, electromagnetism etc. ... but why are there so many theories and not one to explain everything... why does it have to be so complicated? So they tried to put up a theory (and to demonstrate it) about everything around us... one single theory that rules everything that is happening around us and within us... from the highest level (universe, galaxies etc.) to the smallest level (atoms, particles etc.).

For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about here I recommend that you start by watching this very interesting 3 hour documentary: The Elegant Universe. I explains some of the theories up to the string theory and the birth of the string theory (the theory of everything).

Well I'm going back to my research... Hope I got you interested on the subject :)

The most effective baby-sitting tool

2009-07-07T15:11:00.005+03:00

You really enjoy the fact you have younger brother/sister, but sometimes feel you just cannot make him/her calm down when you are left "guard" at home while your parents are away at some party? Well there is a very old tool that can prove to be verrry effective in helping you have a quite and relaxed evening...

If you haven't guessed by now... it's the DUCT TAPE!

A few tips...
- never position head pointing downwards...
- regularly check up on the situation... as you don't want wet wall & floor... or worse... brown sticky stuff on the wall...

In the end your brother/sister might get a bit of sticky skin... but it can all be fixed before parents get back with a bit of shampoo :)

Happy baby-sitting!

Long Distance Hug

2009-07-05T19:33:00.001+03:00

For a far away friend:

Feel like a hug? Go to a park...
Stand by a tree and think of me.
I hug a tree, you hug a tree
Pretend it's you, pretend it's me.