AgaWebs - Posts

"Hot'n'cold" Ukrainian Style

2009-05-05T20:49:00.003+03:00

As soon as I saw it, I just had to "steal" this from Ovidiu's blog. Feast your years on this brilliant remake of Katy Perry's "Hot'n'Cold"...

Ciucas > Muntele Rosu > Japp

2009-03-21T00:28:00.001+02:00

Dupa o noua iesire in Ciucas si o alta sedere la Cabana Muntele Rosu, a iesit genericul de mai jos. Sper sa nu se supere nimeni...

Cateva precizari care merita retinute:

daca plecati spre fosta Cabana Ciucas si nu e poteca prin zapada, va ia aproximativ o ora jumate pana la Fantana lui Ioan;
meniul de la Muntele Rosu are traduceri in engleza sub fiecare fel, si ies in evidenta urmatorii termeni: suc de fructe - juice of fruits; cafea mica - little coffee (aproape ca ti se face mila de saracuta cafea);
in camere nu e foarte cald asa ca merita sa luati saci de dormit la voi (pentru orice eventualitate);
fata care ne-a fost gazda e prietenoasa si foarte de treaba, si la fel e si proprietarul, care s-a oferit sa ne ia cu masina din Cheia (noi am ales totusi sa urcam noaptea prin padure).

Una peste alta, totul e bine cand se termina cu bine. Mergeti la Muntele Rosu daca aveti ocazia si vizitati Muntii Ciucas.

Custom Meta and Title Tags for Blogger

2009-02-12T22:13:00.007+02:00

A while ago I received a comment from CJ in which he was asking for a widget or gadget to automatically implement the "Meta Description Hack" for Blogger. I didn't notice the comment back then (awfully sorry for that), but recently, as I was looking over those comments I decided to take up that challenge. Below is a small javascript application you can use to generate custom meta descriptions, keywords and title tags for Blogspot blogs, as well as a video tutorial on how to use it.

Step 1

For how many pages would you like to create custom meta tags?

Step 2

Is your homepage among these pages?
yes, the first description and keyword tags should be for my blog's homepage
no, all meta tags are for other pages on my blog (usually post pages)

Step 3

Should the code include the hack for swapping page titles with article titles?
yes
no, I've already added that piece of code

Step 4

How should the title appear for a post page?
<post title> (Eg: Custom Meta Description)
<post title - blog title> (Eg: Custom Meta Description - AgaWebs)

Apuseni > Muntii Bihorului > Zona Padis

2009-01-18T03:16:00.005+02:00

Thanks to my younger sister I finally found a proper soundtrack for the images I filmed last year in September. Hope you enjoy the Padis experience:

The Padis area (Zona Padis) is located in Bihor's Mountains (Muntii Bihorului) and those, in turn, are part of the Romanian Apuseni Mountains (Muntii Apuseni). Here are some of the main attractions in this region, ordered as they appear in my video:

Pestera Focul Viu: there's a large opening in the roof of this cavern. In summer, on a sunny day, light shines through the opening and onto the glacier inside, creating an illusion of burning fire.

Pietrele Galbenei: large cliff face overlooking a vast valley.

Lumea Pierduta: "The Lost World" - several avens (vertical caves) are grouped in this area, the most spectacular one being Avenul Gemanata.

Cetatile Radesei & Cheile Somesului Cald: a network of tunnels and vertical shafts (avens) dug through the mountain by water.

Cetatile Ponorului: a formation similar to "Cetatile Radesei", but on a much larger scale. The portal seen in the video is its main entrance and it's 73m tall - about as high as a 20 story building.

Pestera Ghetarului de la Scarisoara: the cave which houses the largest glacier in Romania.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T01:16:00.003+02:00

Stumble Upon Horror Photos

2008-11-20T00:22:00.005+02:00

Nothing original here. But thanks to Saleel I rediscovered what pleasant accidents social media sites can cause.

Horror film enthusiasts, hover your cursor over the gallery below to see the photos I ~~stumbled upon on FindAccidentally~~ accidentally found on StumbleUpon.

Note that these pictures are for sale and they're not created in Photoshop, but with real people wearing makeup and costumes - or so says the author.

Photo Gallery powered by Stu Nicholls' design idea

Now, to get to my point... if you are (or would like to become) a StumbleUpon user, don't forget to use the bookmark button below each post and rate this blog :)

New Custom Domain

2008-11-17T17:49:00.003+02:00

So... I've changed the domain name for my blog. The new address is http://www.agawebs.com/ and the new name is AgaWebs. Sounds cool, doesn't it?

For those of you who plan on performing a similar stunt, note that it's not as straight forward as you might think. I, for one, had a bit of trouble with this migration and though I should share the things I've learnt...

Let's say you're in the same situation as I was: you own a Blogger (or Blogspot) blog, you buy a custom domain from GoDaddy and want to point it to your blog. First thing you'll do is read Google's guidelines for moving a site. You'll then read Blogger's help articles on using a custom domain for your blog and creating a CNAME record for the domain. After following the instructions in these tutorials, you'll be tempted to think it's all over and wait for DNS servers to update their records. I've done so myself and noticed that after 72 hours, the domain still wasn't pointing to my blog. Here are the full instructions I received from GoDaddy Support in order to fix this:

Dear Andrei,

Thank you for contacting Online Support.

I understand you have a question about pointing your domain name properly to your blog. I have included instructions to do so:

1. Modify the 'www' CNAME to show that it 'points to' ghs.google.com. (you have already done so.)

2. Set the 'A' record to the forwarding IP address (64.202.189.170)

3. Set up domain forwarding to the following URL: http://www.agawebs.com

To modify the A-Record for the your domain:

1. Select Domain Manager from the My Products menu.
2. Click on the domain which you wish to change the A-Record for.
3. Click Total DNS Control and MX Records.
4. Under the A (Host) section, click the pencil icon to the right of the @ record.
5. Enter the new IP address.
6. Click OK

NOTE: Changes to the settings of a domain can take up to 48 hours to become effective because of the number of networks involved, and because these networks are controlled by several different agencies. This delay applies to all domains with any Registrar. Please allow for this delay when planning web sites or configuring a domain to work with your services.

To setup or modify domain forwarding:

1. From My Products, click Domain Manager.
2. Check the box next to the domain(s) you wish to modify.
3. Click the Forward Domains button above your list of domains.
4. Select the Enabled option.
5. Enter the full URL that you would like your domain to forward to. (For example: http://www.anotherdomain.com)
6. Select the redirect type you would like for the domain forwarding.
7. Click OK.

Note: Changes to the settings of a domain can take an average of 48 hours due to the number of networks involved. These networks are controlled by many different entities and are updated independently.

Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.

Sincerely,

Dean P.
Online Support Technician

As you can see, Blogger's tutorial is missing at least one crucial step: setting the 'A' record to the forwarding IP address. I'm not sure if the IP is the same for all domains, so do contact the very helpful GoDaddy Support staff before performing these steps. Note that domain forwading (the 3rd step mentioned in Dean's email) is used in order to make both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com point to the same site. This can be performed from Blogger's admin panel as well - it's the "Redirect yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com" option under Settings > Publishing. However, using this option can cause further problems, so I recommend you stick only to the instructions above.

That's the full story of my new domain. I still have to change some of the links on this blog and make them point to the new addresses. By the way, if you come across any broken links or other bugs, please notify me in a comment. My Outbrain star ratings have also been reset, so please start rating again, bookmark the articles you like and subscribe to the new feeds.

Thank you for visiting my blog :)

Sliding Doors for MY a:hover Craft

2008-10-21T16:33:00.012+03:00

Lately, I've been experimenting with different cascading style sheet designs for websites. One of the problems I've come across is how to create custom link buttons or tabs and add my own images on their background. Bear in mind that such links have to have a variable width depending on the length of the link anchor or on the different browser settings a visitor might have previously applied. This is all fine when the backgound picture is simply a small .gif which generates a texture. But what do you do when you want to use an image such as this?...

Note that both the left and right edges of the picture are relevant for my button. The picture is 400px wide and if the anchor text exceedes that width, the backgound is repeated spoiling the design. On the other hand, if the anchor text is shorter, the right edge isn't showing. As a pre-requisite, we're not allowed to fix this using HTML tables, but only CSS. The proper solution is a technique called "sliding doors" and I found it on Douglas Bowman's webdesign blog. Basically, you use two overlapping pictures and calculate their width so that the resulting button can contain both short and long strings. I'm not going to insist too much on this technique, but just to illustrate it clearly, I've drawn a diagram based on Bowman's explanation:

Another common CSS technique is to use the a:link, a:hover etc. pseudo-classes to create different effects when visitors hold their mouse over a link button. A good tutorial for doing this is Stu Nicholls' article on ":hover crafts". Here's my own basic example:

Button 1 Button 2 Button 3

However, when you want to apply this a:hover technique to a button that has to have an image background during the "hover" state, you run into a problem. I haven't found any articles which explain how this should be done, so after a few trials, I came up with the following procedure:

I'm going to use a navigation bar to demonstrate the technique. It's good practice to place the navbar links in an unordered list, so start I'll by writing the HTML code necessary for this button list:
<ul>
 <li><a href="#">Button 1</a></li>
 <li><a href="#">Link</a></li>
 <li><a href="#">Button 2</a></li>
</ul>
I haven't declared any style properties yet, so at this point, the list looks like this:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
Each list item obviously contains a "<a>" tag for the link anchors. In addition to that, the link text is contained within "" tags which I'm going to use as my top layers for the sliding doors - you'll understand this later.
Keeping the same HTML code, I'm now going to start editing CSS properties for the list: first, remove bullets and adjust margin + padding:
ul{
   list-style-type: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }

li{
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }
Result:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
I want this to be a horizontal navbar, so next I'm going to display the list items inline (changes are highlighted in bold):
ul{
   float: left;
   list-style-type: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }

li{
   float: left;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }
Result:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
I'm now going to set a fixed height for the navbar, plus a red background in order to point out its shape:
ul{
   float: left;
   list-style-type: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   background-color: Red;
   height: 30px;
   overflow: hidden;
   }

li{
   float: left;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }
Result:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
By now, there's a need to adjust the padding of these buttons. So I start off by adding some padding on the left side of the anchor:
ul{
   float: left;
   list-style-type: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   background-color: Red;
   height: 30px;
   overflow: hidden;
   }

li{
   float: left;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }

li a{
   display: block; /*display the achor as a block*/
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0 0 0 10px;
   }
Result:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
The remaining padding can be adjusted by editing the properties of the "" tag. I'm also going to set a green backgound for it in order to display its shape clearly:
ul{
 float: left;
 list-style-type: none;
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 background-color: Red;
 height: 30px;
 overflow: hidden;
 }

li{
 float: left;
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 }

li a{
 display: block; /*display the achor as a block*/
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0 0 0 10px;
 }

li a span{
 display: block;
 margin: 0;
 padding: 4px 10px 10px 0;
 background-color: Green;
 }
Result:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
Setting the "a:hover" behavior - this is the part where I can actually apply the "skin" for my buttons. Since the "" entity is the top-most layer, I'll use it to dislay the main part of the button and its right edge. The "<a>" tag will be used to render the left edge only:
ul{
 float: left;
 list-style-type: none;
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 background-color: Red;
 height: 30px;
 overflow: hidden;
 }

li{
 float: left;
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 }

li a{
 float: left; /*this ensures the entire button is clickable*/
 display: block; /*display the achor as a block*/
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0 0 0 10px;
 }

li a span{
 display: block;
 margin: 0;
 padding: 7px 10px 10px 0;
 background-color: Green;
 }

li a:hover{
 background: url(button-bg-gradient.gif) left top;
 }

li a:hover span{
 background: url(button-bg-gradient.gif) right top;
 }
Result (hover your mouse over it to see the changes):
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2
OK, we're nearly there. All the navbar needs now is a proper background and some finishing text-formatting touches:
ul{
   float: left;
   list-style-type: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   background: url(bg-gradient.gif);
   height: 30px;
   overflow: hidden;
   }

li{
   float: left;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }

li a{
   float: left; /*this ensures the entire button is clickable*/
   display: block; /*display the achor as a block*/
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0 0 0 10px;
   cursor: pointer;
   text-decoration: none;
   color: White;
   font-family: Tahoma;
   font-weight: bold;
   text-transform: uppercase;
   font-size: small;
   }

li a span{
   display: block;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 7px 10px 10px 0;
   cursor: pointer;
   }

li a:hover{
   background: url(button-bg+gradient.gif) left top;
   }

li a:hover span{
   background: url(button-bg+gradient.gif) right top;
   }
Result:
- Button 1
- Link
- Button 2

That's about all there is to it. You can use this technique to also create skins for the inactive state of your buttons.

Note that the text above is already formatted, so you may encounter problems if you copy that code into the source code of your website. Instead, I recommend you copy the final code from the text boxes below:

HTML:

<ul>
   <li><a href="#"><span>Button 1</span></a></li>
   <li><a href="#"><span>Link</span></a></li>
   <li><a href="#"><span>Button 2</span></a></li>
</ul>

CSS:

ul{
   float: left;
   list-style-type: none;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   background: url(bg-gradient.gif);
   height: 30px;
   overflow: hidden;
   }

li{
   float: left;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
   }
    
li a{
   float: left; /*this ensures the entire button is clickable*/
   display: block; /*display the achor as a block*/
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0 0 0 10px;
   cursor: pointer;
   text-decoration: none;
   color: White;
   font-family: Tahoma;
   font-weight: bold;
   text-transform: uppercase;
   font-size: small;
}
    
li a span{
   display: block;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 7px 10px 10px 0;
   cursor: pointer;
   }
    
li a:hover{
   background: url(button-bg+gradient.gif) left top;
   }

li a:hover span{
   background: url(button-bg+gradient.gif) right top;
   }

There are plenty of examples of such navbars on Stu Nicholls' site (see above). Furthermore, one can deduce the technique by simply looking at the source code of a site that uses it. However, I felt a clear explanation was needed and I hope I've accomplished that with my article. Please share any better tutorials you may find and let me know how this works out for your site.

Piatra Craiului

2008-04-25T07:10:00.005+03:00






<ecoXtrem>










</ecoXtrem>

Images from Piatra Mare

2008-04-17T14:44:00.010+03:00

November 2005

May 2006
<by Tavi>


</by Tavi>

February 2008
<by Specian>

</by Specian>

<by Cristi>


</by Cristi>

My Point of View

2008-04-15T23:37:00.000+03:00

Meta Description - More Detailed Explanation

2008-04-12T03:39:00.018+03:00

Check out the code generator and video
tutorial for this hack in my new article:
Custom Meta and Title Tags for Blogger

Since more details are needed about how to add meta descriptions and keywords for each blogger page, I've written a new article on this topic. This is a continuation of the Meta Description for Each Blogger Page article and it's not meant to replace it. Please make sure you read the initial post carefully and follow all the instructions in it to avoid messing up your Blogger template.

blog structure

I won't discuss all the elements in a blog, but the ones we're interested in are the main page and the post pages. Unless you're publishing your blog on a custom domain, the link to the main page looks similar to this one:

http://_something.blogspot.com/

Post pages contain the individual articles/posts in your blog and they have permanent links (Blogger calles them "permalinks") which look like this:

http://_something.blogspot.com/2004/03/name.html

Our aim is to add meta descriptions and keywords for these sort of pages, so we should keep in mind the types of links mentioned above. Remember that what you identify as a post/article or as the homepage is identified by a web browser using the respective link.

code explained

The code you need to use in order to add meta descriptions and keywords is this one:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2004/03/name.html"'> <meta content='DESCRIPTION' name='description'/> <meta content='KEYWORDS' name='keywords'/> </b:if>

Let's look at each line and see what they mean:

The first line expresses a condition: <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2004/03/name.html"'> This basically says: "if the link (blog.url) that a user is viewing matches (==) a certain link (http://_something.blogspot.com/2004/03/name.html), do...".
The second and third lines are the description and keywords themselves, placed in meta tags. An approximate translation for these two lines would be: "associate this description and these keywords with the current web page".
The fourth and last line ( </b:if> ) ends the conditional statement.

If you connect this code explanation with the conclusion we've reached in the first section, you end up with a phrase that says:

If the page that a user is viewing is the main page or a certain post or article, associate these respective keywords and description to it.

That is exactly what we want to do and it is especially important since we can have a webcrawler (like the Googlebot) instead of a user. Unfortunately however, due to the fact that you can only declare a single "constant" link (http://_something.blogspot.com/2004/03/name.html) in this code batch, you have to repeat the sequence for your main page and for all your other post pages.

where to place it

Here's a screenshot that should explain where to place this code in your template:

You can place the keywords and description immediately above or below the <title>...</title> line - you choose. If your template looks different than mine, just look for the <title>...</title> line and make room for the code above or beneath it.

example

As a conclusion, we'll look at what you have to in a specific example. Let's say the link to your blog's main or home page is:

http://_something.blogspot.com/

We'll also consider that this blog only contains two articles published in February and March, 2008 and that their titles are "My First Post" and "Future Plans". The permanent links (permalinks) to these two post pages will be:

http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-first-post.html
http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/03/future-plans.html

The code you need to add to your template for the main/homepage and the other two post pages is:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/"'>
 <meta content='A blog about things I like' name='description'/>
 <meta content='my_name,blog,hobby' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-first-post.html"'>
 <meta content='Why I've started this blog' name='description'/>
 <meta content='motivation,blog,first' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/03/future-plans.html"'>
 <meta content='What my plans are' name='description'/>
 <meta content='future,plans,travel,vacation,Easter' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

If you write a third article called "Easter Holiday" and post it in May, its permalink will be:

http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/05/easter-holiday.html

... and the updated code from your template will look like this:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/"'>
 <meta content='A blog about things I like' name='description'/>
 <meta content='my_name,blog,hobby' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-first-post.html"'>
 <meta content='Why I've started this blog' name='description'/>
 <meta content='motivation,blog,first' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/03/future-plans.html"'>
 <meta content='What my plans are' name='description'/>
 <meta content='future,plans,travel,vacation,Easter' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/05/easter-holiday.html"'>
 <meta content='What I did this Easter' name='description'/>
 <meta content='travel,vacation,Easter,eggs,bunny' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>

If a user or webcrawler requests the http://_something.blogspot.com/2008/03/future-plans.html link (your second post page), the first, second and fourth conditions are not matched and the page they see will have only the meta description and keywords you specifically chose for it.

I hope this clarifies the steps you need to follow. Please post your comments and feedback about this explanation.

Analiză Mondenă

2008-04-03T23:01:00.019+03:00

Pentru că tot e marele summit în Bucureşti, am venit puţin pe-acasă să mai respir nişte aer (nu că în Bucureşti n-ar fi aer, da' aşa se zice). Înafară de reîntâlnirea cu ai mei şi cu my dog Shumy (vezi poza din dreapta), de notat ar fi comentariile lu' Bunica:

Despre paticiparea preşedintelui rus la summit:: Mă-tin-câ Putin ş-a ţâni hirea. O sâ vez-câ nu mai vini în-nie-sarâ.
Despre Busu si Neti Sandu de la PRO TV:: Apăi ăsta-i hal de-a-sâmbrăca la aiştia? Ăla parc-adunâ di prin gunoai şî as-laltî zâci câ-i strânsâ di pi stradâ.

Mda... N-aş fi putut formula mai bine nici într-o sută de ani. Bunica are un talent anume la vorbe şi probabil voi fi forţat să mai editez şi să mai adaug la paragraful de mai sus până plec de acasă.

Meta Description for Each Blogger Page

2008-03-29T10:54:00.036+02:00

Check out the code generator and video
tutorial for this hack in my new article:
Custom Meta and Title Tags for Blogger

Meta descriptions for your web pages can improve the chances of your site being found and clicked on. For those of you who tried adding such descriptions or keywords to your Blogger pages, you might have noticed there's no easy way of doing that.

This article describes the workaround I found for this problem and is a follow-up to the discussions posted here:

About the solutions mentioned in the articles above:

If you add a "constant" meta tag to your Blogger template (as described in the first article), all your pages will have the same description and keywords. This defeats the purpose of this optimization effort and you'll have to go with the solution from the second link. However...
The JackBook Dot Com code seems to be a bit outdated and using it might cause one of the following problems:
- 404 error when trying to view any of your web pages, or...
- The blog is displayed correctly, but the description and keywords are not seen by any meta analyzers.

Here are the changes you have to apply to your template in order for the descriptions to work correctly:

Open the Layout panel of your blog and go to Edit HTML.
Click the Download Full Template link and save a backup copy of your current template so you can undo the following changes in case anything goes wrong.
Locate the following lines of code:
<head> <b:include data="blog" name="all-head-content" /> <title><data:blog.pageTitle /></title>
Add the following code immediately after the <b:include data="blog" name="all-head-content" /> line:
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://johndoe.blogspot.com/"'> <meta content='DESCRIPTION' name='description'/> <meta content='KEYWORDS' name='keywords'/> </b:if>
Replace the http://johndoe.blogspot.com/ line with the URL of your homepage.
Replace the word DESCRIPTION with a description for your homepage.
Replace the word KEYWORDS with a list of keywords separated by commas and relevant for your homepage.
Now, for each individual page from your blog you'll need to follow steps 4-7 again, but adding corresponding URL's, descriptions and keywords. For example, if your first article is about your pet, what you'll need to do next is...
Add this code again immediately after the <b:include data="blog" name="all-head-content" /> line:
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://johndoe.blogspot.com/"'> <meta content='DESCRIPTION' name='description'/> <meta content='KEYWORDS' name='keywords'/> </b:if>
Replace the http://johndoe.blogspot.com/ line with http://johndoe.blogspot.com/2008/03/my_pet this_is_an_example.html.
Replace the word DESCRIPTION with a description of my pet.
Replace the word KEYWORDS with pet,dog,dog_name.
After adding code for all of your pages, save the template and check if it's doing what it's supposed to.

NOTE:

Each time you write a new article, you'll have to edit your template and add code for that new page as well.
There are several other minor tips you need to be aware of in order to get best results, so please read the articles below as well:
- http://bloggertricks.com/2007/12/adding-meta-tags-to-bloggerblogspot.html
- http://www.ourblogtemplates.com/2008/01/how-to-add-meta-tags-into-your-blog.html
To reach this solution, I've used tips from Blogger's Help pages in order to modify the code from JackBook Dot Com.

That's all there is to it. Please post your feedback and comments in case the code needs more tweaking.

Cat de senil sunt de fapt

2008-03-28T19:21:00.012+02:00

Dupa un articol putin cam pretentios, e cazul sa arat ce e de fapt de capu' meu. Fara nici o aluzie la poza cu cei doi catei, iata doi stimati colegi intr-un turn al Manastirii Gura Humorului:

How senile I really am

Leaving behind the much to pretentious FLT article, it's time for me to reveal my true character shown in this interview I filmed at Manastirea Gura Humorului. Without any connection whatsoever to the dogs above, let me first introduce you to two mates I was there with:

...si interviul filmat acolo:

...and the interview:

Serios vorbind, uite si o poza cu manastirea:

On a more serious note, here's a picture of the monastery:

Manastirea Gura Humorului

Fermat's Last Theorem 1637

2008-03-25T22:03:00.016+02:00

For any integer "n" greater than 2, the equation: xⁿ+yⁿ=zⁿ has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z.

Pe romaneste, Marea Teorema a lui Fermat spune ca:

Oricare ar fi n mai mare decat 2, ecuatia xⁿ+yⁿ=zⁿ nu are solutii intregi, diferite de 0.

Although the statement can be easily understood by sixth graders, a proof has only been found recently by an English mathematician called Andrew Wiles. To even begin to understand it, one needs at least a master’s degree in mathematics. Here’s the full story...

You might have heard of his name in highschool and you were probably told about his numerous contributions to algebra and differential calculus. Pierre de Fermat (1601 – 1665) was however, a lawyer and the awkward combination between his mathematical skills and this profession made him famous during his time. He was friend with other well known contemporary mathematicians like Blaise Pascal or Rene Descartes and used to exchange letters with them. As a way of mocking these "professionals" he would send them theorems without including their proof, fact which made him known as the "prince of amateurs".

In such a way, this Last Theorem was proposed and to understand its implications let’s look at some specific values for n.

If n = 1, the statement turns into: x+y=z which has an infinite number of solutions. If we were to look at a geometrical representation of this equation, we’d have the following situation:

Similarly, for n = 2, the geometrical correspondents of x² and y² would be two squares and the problem would be reduced to finding a third one with an area equal to x²+y². The only limitation is that sizes of lengths x, y and z all have to be integers. This problem has been answered in Pythagoras' theorem and the solutions are the well known Pythagorean triplets:

Regular human imagination could only reach as far as the third eventual iteration if we were to continue with geometrical shapes. Moreover, the theorem states that there are no solutions for n greater than 2, so to prove it we’d have to try and imagine an infinite number of cubes and the chances of them fitting into the equation.

Over the years, systematic approaches were tried. To cover all possibilities, mathematicians tried demonstrating the formula for n=4, 5 and so on, and with the appearance of computer technology they even developed algorithms to carry out numeric calculations for higher values. Even so, there are an infinite number of (x, y, z) combinations multiplied by an infinite number of powers. That is why the final demonstration and proof found in 1994 had to use complex analytical mathematics, algebraic geometry and techniques developed in the last century.

This led many to think Fermat never had a solution to this problem. Although the current demonstration is strong proof of that, a fair number of people still believe in a "naive approach" accessible to 17^th century mathematicians. Fermat’s proof may have been based on a simple detail overlooked by all others, similarly to how 16 year old Nicolo Paganini found his pair of amicable numbers. It might have included a fairly complex algebraic demonstration left out by other mathematicians. However, the most mind-blowing possibility is that Fermat found a shortcut beyond any conventional approaches. There is a chance that a brilliant mind such as his found a corresponding abstract structure or a set of properties, that would transcend and morph from segments to squares, cubes and so on or from length to surface and volume. After all, Fermat’s original description of the problem involved a hint about geometrical shapes and the starting point of this 350 year old search was a note written by Fermat himself on the small edge of one of his books:

Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi. Hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet.

It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes, or a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general, any power higher than the second into two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvellous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain.

The theorem caused many reactions and has as many implications. It has revived the ancient "liar" paradox and given birth to new problems. Some equally important ones were solved along the way and as a consequence. It scared well known mathematicians from its path, brought others to despair and all of this contributed in an ironic way to the legacy left behind by Pierre de Fermat and his eccentric view on math.

References:

Wikipedia – Pierre de Fermat – EN, RO;
Wikipedia - Fermat's last theorem - EN, RO;
Wikipedia - Andrew Wiles;
Fermat's Last Theorem - David Shay;
Fermat's Last Theorem - Nico de Jong;
this 45 min. documentary on Andrew Wiles’ proof (yeah, there’s a film):

Trip to Mountain Ciucas

2008-03-23T19:41:00.046+02:00

Yesterday I finally got some comments for my first video on YouTube. They weren’t much, but I’m glad to see that someone who wasn’t part of the story had fun watching it – at least that’s what I like to think. Have a look below to see what the video is about...

Now, then... a couple of topics this brings me to:

Movie Editing Software

The clip was made in Windows Vista’s Movie Maker which is far better than the one included in XP. Try it out in case you never have. And speaking of, have a look at the differences between Microsoft and Apple’s approach to home video editing.

Tutorials and demonstrations: Windows Movie Maker iMovie
Mac vs PC TV ads (funny stuff): http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

The Location

Images were taken in Ciucas – a small mountain between Brasov and Ploiesti. Here’s a map:

Right... that’s the best I could come up with, without infringing copyright laws. The big, black blob in the middle with white contour is Mountain Ciucas. Great place to go to, especially in winter. Unfortunately there’s no train to take you there, but there are minibuses which leave from Bucharest and you can find out their schedule by doing a quick Google search. Having your own car is definitely an advantage.

Once you get there, you can stay in Cheia (plenty of hotels to choose from) or at Muntele Rosu – a great cabin outside the town and closer to the mountain itself. Actually, my recommendation is to choose the latter – the cabin is very neat and clean, it’s got indoor plumbing, hot water and showers and the prices are reasonable. I think a room with two beds was 80 or 100 lei back in November (2007) and if you behave, they might let 3 from your group stay in the same two-bedded room. As for food and drink, the cabin has its own restaurant – a good meal can cost no more than 25 lei and you can make do with less if you’re not a heavy eater.

For those of you who are into hardcore mountain adventure you can stay in a tent near this cabin (not recommendable during winter) or go further up the mountain and camp near the Ciucas cabin. Although abandoned, it can provide decent shelter and you can even sleep in it if you’ve got proper sleeping bags.

Now that you know how to reach the place, get settled in and eat there, time to tell you about some of the hot spots. Me, I’m generally happy with any hike on any mountain track, and in Ciucas there are plenty of sights to reward you while hiking. The main attractions however are the Ciucas summit (1.954 m – great view on a sunny day) and the numerous large rock formations that bare resemblance to old Viking warriors, Devil’s hands and so on. Here are the trails I’ve hiked on in Ciucas so far and for reference the time those walks might last (the names are written as they appear on Romanian maps):

Cheia – Muntele Rosu (1 hour)
Muntele Rosu – fantana Nicolae Ioan – cabana Ciucas (2 hours and 30 minutes)
Cabana Ciucas – Vf. Ciucas (1 hour and 15 minutes)
Vf. Ciucas – Saua Tigailor – cabana Ciucas (2 hours)
Cabana Ciucas – red cross trail (Culmea Gropsoarele-Zaganu) – red triangle trail – Muntele Rosu (3 hours and 30 minutes – 4 hours)

The numbers written above (prices and distances) are from what I can remember and you might want to double check them. But I hope you’re now curios and interested, so have a good time in Ciucas.

Rapid - Steaua

2008-03-21T21:42:00.012+02:00

Yesterday's encounter between the two was stopped due to fans throwing stuff (cigarette lighters - I think) at the referee and onto the pitch. Score was 1-0 for Rapid before the game was cancelled and the official outcome is to be established by a league committee. Since Rapid were the home team, the most likely decision is a 3-0 win for Steaua and who knows what other sanctions for Rapid.

At first glance, this is good news for Steaua's fans, but me being one of them, I'm having second thoughts about the entire story. This is a new item on the list of accusations brought against Steaua by those who say this club is bribing referees. Looking back at the mistakes referees made during the previous two games, its clear the victories were influenced by their decisions. I still can't admit this interference was premeditated and paid for, but even so, the team isn't displaying a convicing act and not living up to its reputation and goals.

A second aspect is the fact that club officials and even the players acted cowardly about this whole thing. Steaua's players left the pitch in a rush with no remorse for not having proven worty of the victory, while its managers and club owner were strongly rejecting the idea of a rematch. I think a dozen other aspects were and are still discussed on sports news and talk shows, some based on pure speculation, others on certain precedents. In fact, I suppose sports televisions and newspapers were the only ones who gained something from all this - a new opportunity to spread hatred and increase their ratings with a new scandal and their well oriented questions and comments. As far as fans are concerned, this was a disgraceful display of cowardice and stupidity which has only fueled frustration of both sides.

All in all this was a rather nasty episode in Steaua's history. I suppose this all leads to a question I have to ask myself every now and then: why should we keep watching Romanian football? Romanian - because these teams and players represent us and our country in European and world tournaments and they've already made us proud so many times. Keep watching football - hmm... because football is like real life. I can't believe I'm using such a cliche, but it's true and such events only come to prove it. We all have our moments when we're down and weak and moments of glory and victory. We all act cowardly from time to time, thinking we should save our energy to fight a more important battle. We can all show hypocrisy and say that we would have acted differently than our adversaries, had we been in their place. But to understand what really makes it all worthwhile, have a look below...

Contact Info

2008-03-20T00:00:00.020+02:00

Mail:	andrei_aga [at] yahoo.co.uk
YouTube Channel:	http://www.youtube.com/drussca

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