Pedro Assunção

My face in space?

2010-07-29T15:04:14Z

Congratulations, you're face has been stolen...

Wanna get your face in space? Just go to NASA’s website, choose a mission, and upload your pic. Time waste? Maybe. Fun to see your face in the rocket? Yep.

Isn’t music very similar?

2010-07-22T07:36:07Z

One thing that both annoys and amazes me is the limited number of chord combinations in most songs. It’s extremely frequent to hear a musical composition and get that feeling that you heard it before. And we are probably right most of the times.

In the last AC/DC album there is a song entitled “Big Jack”. As soon as i heard it i immediately recalled another song by a very polemic Portuguese singer from the the 80s: António Variações (look up his songs, they were pretty innovative back then, actually).

I still trying to think why i am writing this but guess that i can’t help wondering, first, why aren’t there any more musical notes (i guess i should look that up) and, second, why most bands don’t explore more and keep falling to the same chord combinations all the time. The easy explanation is the amount of money that you can make with little work on a catchy pop song, but i feel sad if that’s the only one.

The quest for a simple music player on mac OSX

Feedsquares: A refreshing view for Google Reader

2010-07-14T08:57:12Z

I don’t know about you, but i have still to find the perfect RSS reader. I don’t dislike Google Reader, but i always feel that things can be better (yeah, it’s both a curse and a blessing) and, recently, i found a little thing – called Feedsquares – that puts a nice twist on its interface, making really non-distracting the act of reading each piece of news.

Feedsquares looks nice

It is comprised of a bunch of squares (one per feed you have) and, when clicked, it will show yet more squares; this time the stories in that feed. Clicking those will open the story full page. Check it out, you might like it

Introducing the new eyePhone

2010-07-14T08:56:40Z

Awesome Futurama video parodying Apple’s iPhone:

A new kind of bandages?

2010-07-14T08:55:56Z

A normal bandage

I hate bandages. I really do. Everyone knows the best way for a wound to heal is to leave it exposed to oxygen and, hence, a bandage is the worst thing you can do to it.

A couple of days ago i took a big crash while going downhill on my bike (for gore lovers, check out the picture of my arm) and ended up with my right shoulder and elbow completely scratched. The elbow is a no brainer in the summer; since i use a t-shirt all day, it can just go around with Betadine on it and heal normally. The problem is the shoulder. Since i don’t usually like to use tank tops in my everyday life, it would be hard for my clothes not to get soaked in a mixture of blood and Bepanthene/Betadine.

Now, here’s an idea: why not create a bandage that is open everywhere, except in its boundaries – so that the wound can normally “breathe” and at the same time not be in contact with the clothes?

The bandage i needed

I kind had to pull a Mcggyver (check the last entry) and improvise one this morning. It works marvelously. I think i should start selling these things

Apple quietly renovates the MacMini

2010-06-15T09:40:18Z

And i must say it looks beautiful!

It features twice the graphics speed, HDMI connector (finally!), a thin unibody aluminum case, and a built in power supply (which means no more big power transformer in along the power cable).

I love it and i definitely want one connected to my TV in my living room

Check it out at Apple’s website.

A nicer way to pack your pilot chute

2010-05-26T09:50:06Z

My good friend Ricardo recently pointed me to this video on how to properly pack your pilot chute.

This method has the following advantages:

It’s faster than traditional methods;
You don’t have to deal with excess of bridle;
It will make sure that you don’t have horse-shoe malfunctions due to the pilot beeing stuck inside the pocket;
It’s way cooler!

Good blogging desktop client for mac (osx)

2010-05-26T08:13:47Z

When i think about my mind’s typical excuses not to write on this blog, the one that pops up the fastest is usually the lack of a good blogging desktop client for mac.

I know, i know, i should just shut the hell up, use WordPress’ web admin interface, and quit whining. But i have a big problem when it comes to writing: i’m lazy. Anything that takes more than a few clicks in order to start writing will make me want to fire up my desktop PC and play something. I once bought a desktop blogging client called Ecto (which i still use, from times to times), but i think it’s no longer maintained properly since illumineX acquired it from it’s maker – Adriaaan Tijsseling – in the spring of 2008. And to be honest it never felt quite awesome, complaining all the time about the malformed-ness of my youtube embedded code.

So i was wondering if any of you – the 2 people that actually read my blog – know about a nicer (WP) desktop client for the mac.

In other – completely unrelated – news: I have my own parachute rig now. Here are some pics:

DSCF0866 by nocivus

DSCF0867 by nocivus

Google introduces GMail image drag and drop

2010-05-12T12:41:27Z

At least if you are using Chrome

If you drag any picture from your desktop to the message body it will get automagically included in the email. Pretty neat, uh?

Latex in Google Docs

2010-05-07T08:45:06Z

Pretty cool stuff, now you can edit Latex from google docs. Check it out here. Too bad i decided a long time ago to use HTML+CSS for my resume, otherwise i would definitely give this a try over offline Latex editors