One Hundred Years Of Solitude
Yes; so late, I finished reading this treasure, “Cien años de soledad” as it is known in its original language, and I must say that it is for sure one of the best novels ever written, and must definitely the best work in modern Spanish literature; and I don’t say: “so late” because it was at a late hour of the day that I finished reading it, but because it was so late in life I decided to read it, I should have done it years ago; this book can certainly change one’s way to look at many things once you’ve read it.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez work is studied in universities across the world and is no surprise to me as its “magical realism” (as his style is commonly known) involves you from the start to the very end of this book, it is highly original, imaginative, and unprecedented. One of the most charming qualities of this book is that you can pick it up and allow it to fall open at any random page, read that one page only, and still enjoy it for the imagery, the sheer beauty with which everything is described and narrated.
The novel acquires so much momentum and strength at the very end with its monumental and surprising ending! Gabriel Garcia Marques certainly took his time writing the last pages of his work to create a masterpiece finish really fitting his great novel; there’s so much I could say; I could write pages about the quality and literary value of this work but you must see for yourself, If you like reading do not, I repeat DO NOT die without reading it. (that’s the advice a friend gave me about the book and I really must thank him because he could not be more right)
Create HD Videos For YouTube With Your Quickcam Pro 9000
I have seen people in YouTube uploading videos created with this camera and wondering why theor videos don’t show up in HD once uploaded to YouTube and other video sharing sites; I have created a tutorial on how to record and crop videos with your Logitech Pro 9000 Quickcam and make them compatible with YouTube HD.
Super Software website: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html
Got my VadoHD Pocket Camera
Today I finally received my VadoHD camera on the mail, I have been looking for a while checking out the different HD pocket cameras on the market, reading reviews and comparing features, After some reading and asking many VadoHD users about its performance and quality I decided to go with this Creative’s product and I hope it lives up to its hype.
So far the camera has performed great for me, I would not call the video quality amazing but it’s definitely great for a camera this size and with this price point, If you want professional video quality then you really need to spend some more serious bucks ’cause this won’t cut it for you, but if you are like me, someone just looking for a way to capture those special little moments that come out of the blue every now and then then this is the camera for you.
It has 3 recording modes to record in SD, HD and HD+ the last one being the best quality of them three, additionally it has options for anti-flicker and it lets you select the type of TV system you want such as PAL/NTSC, it also has options to decide which language you want the menus to appear, you can also select options such as Time/Date and Instant Record capabilities, when turn on Instant Record puts the camera in a standby mode where it wakes up instantly when you press any button.
The camera also comes with an HDMI output (cable included) which allows you to connect it directly to any HDTV in the house and watch your videos directly from the camera in full HD from the source, and it has a nice rugged cover to protect it, the only thing I don’t like about the cover is that it is white and the camera is black so it doesn’t look too good when you put it around the camera.
Editing and creating small home movies is very easy with the included Vado Central software that comes included with the camera, it does have a limitation though where it only allows you to put together 3 videos as part of the movie, if you want to add more than 3 you are required to buy the pro version of the application for under $20 bucks which is not a bad deal in my opinion, Vado Central also allows you add music and pictures as part of your videos.
If your computer has an HDMI port then you can also use this camera as a webcam; of course don’t expect to be streaming HD videos using Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo messenger, these applications have built in limitations on the quality of the video you can stream, nevertheless another nice thing you can do with this device.
Keep in mind YouTube takes out at least 20 percent of the original video quality so this is by no means the actual quality of the videos you get with this camera, but at least you can have an idea, so here’s a short demo movie I made with my VadoHD:
Is AIM Dying?
Today AOL released an update to its flagship instant messenger client AIM, this time it was version 6.9.13.4, I’m shocked at the little changes made; Looks like they are barely maintaining it; look at the changes on this build:
- Get status updates from your friends on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
- Missing someone from your Buddy List? Find them easily with simple look up tools.
- It’s free! There is no subscription required
LOL Yeap, that’s the official change log, as if the little changes weren’t enough to alarm old time AIM followers, AOL has reverted back to the old AIM logo: that is the little yellow man, yes the red AIM icon is gone, I think AIM is on the way out; I haven’t even felt the need to install it on my computer for the last year or so, Last time I gave it a try it was ugly and felt slow and didn’t look good with Windows Vista at all, most of my friends have migrated to either Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo (Which sucks IMHO).
Hard to believe and sad to see one of the oldest applications on the net, once also one of the most popular ones dying like this, I think this is just a sign of the slow and painful death AOL itself is going through; what happened AOL? how did you let yourself fall from grace like that? you used to own the internet.
Get it HERE if you feel curious about it.
A Lesson From The Jellyfish
Would you like to live for ever? One of the hardest things to accept for those who don’t trust God or the Bible is the idea of eternal life, they say that it is impossible for the human body to live eternally, that we are not designed like that, however often times when presented with that reasoning the ones who do believe in creation realize the fact that even our cells constantly rejuvenate in our body, what scientists cannot comprehend or explain though is why at some point in our lives that process of constant cell rejuvenation suddenly stops leading us to our irreversible and eventual death.
Recently another discovery has proven that for a small sea creature the jellyfish that possibility is a reality; The jellyfish known as the Turritopsis Nutricula has the remarkable ability of ‘growing young’ after it mates…And it is able, at least theoretically, to mate and then revert to its juvenile state an unlimited number of times, as a matter of fact scientists are actively studying this tiny creature to determine how exactly it goes around this.
They have come to the conclusion that the Jellyfish does this through a process called “transdifferentiation” in other words, when older cells are replaced with new ones, scientists believe this creature only dies when it is eaten or killed in the tropical waters off Florida where it is native.
So there you have it, God gave the Jellyfish eternal life, maybe we did also had it at some point but lost it, just as the bible says? you decide.
Got my Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 Webcam
Ok my previous Microsoft Lifecam was giving lots of trouble, specially with audio and it was horrible for recording video so I went ahead and bought a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000; this baby is fitted with a 2-megapixel sensor with autofocus and a built-in microphone. It features Carl Zeiss optics that provides crisp, high-resolution images and videos. Its microphone is equipped with RightSound Technology, which eliminates echo and feedback that is often created by a microphone and speakers that are in close proximity. so I don’t have the need for a headset. I can also add creativity while I communicate with my friends or prepare a video presentation with Logitech Video Effects. It is an application that recognizes facial features and maps them so I could create three-dimensional animated characters or two-dimensional face accessories. It even has downloadable fun-to-use filters that let you add video effects like fisheye, black-and-white effect, neon and more. Taking High Definition 960×720-pixel or 1600×1200-pixel videos with the QuickCam Pro 9000 results to razor-sharp shots whether it is close-up or from a good distance. You can also take photographs with a resolution of up to 8 megapixels.
Taking the web camera outdoors will never be a hassle because it comes with an adjustable attachment, a universal monitor clip for any kind of notebook or desktop PC. It can be connected to your notebook PC through USB 2.0. The Logitech 960-000048 QuickCam Pro 9000 supports 24-bit true color depth and up to 30 frames per second. Aside from the motorclip, the QuickCam Pro 9000 is bundled with a six-foot USB cable, QuickCam Software CD with several helpful tools to get started, and a Quick Start guide.
Here’s some videos I took within few minutes after I bought it, so you know in case you wonder that despite this camera being able to record HD video it does NOT shot videos in 16X9 aspect ratio proper of HD TV and also used by YouTube HD, I had to use a third pary application called Super to crop the video to a 16X7 aspect ratio.
New YouTube channel
Well… a few days ago YouTube closed my channel because of some videos I uploaded, I understand their reasons so I don’t blame them, what I don’t understand is the companies behind it forcing YouTube to shut down channels which contain their material which is copyrighted, what difference does the URL where their content is being played from makes to them? all that matters is that when their content is played they are paid their royalties and that proper credit is giving to the provider and the artists, right? it looks that they are not willing of course to share part of the pie with YouTube though and rather than to make their content available to everyone by other means, they simply in many instances don’t make it even available to the public at all, like in the case of my channel where the offending material was NOT available anywhere else.
Some content providers however do work with YouTube and allow users to post their copyrighted material and simply require YouTube to add a link to the provider and to also include advertisement on the video page, that seems to me like the right approach that every content provider should follow, is it that hard?
Anyway I have a new YouTube channel, which by the way is in many ways better than the previous one, with the exception that I have no subscribers now lol and I lost all favorites and friends, hopefully I will find them again soon, as you probably know YouTube has started allowing the upload of HD files to their site, therefore some of my videos are now in HD (well Near HD) and also some of the videos I had before are now High Quality and I have fixed letterboxing etc. you can visit my new channel at: http://www.youtube.com/ElyOnTV enjoy and don’t forget to post some comments and rate my videos!
New Computer
My old PC was getting old, I have been with it for a while and since I love beta testing for Microsoft and I want to fully test Windows 7 I decided it was time for some PC shopping, I could of had built up my own rig, but I always prefer to buy a good system off the market then upgrade at my own taste and pace, I’m lazy to go buy every single part on line etc; so after looking at what was being offered in terms of OEM PCs I decided to go for the Gateway Model: FX6800-01e this baby comes packed with the latest Intel® i-7 Quad Core CPU the Intel CoreT i7-920 Processor along with the RADEON HD 4850 graphics by ATI and 3GBs of DDR3 memory, I’m planning on soon upgrading to at least 6 more GBs of RAM and probably add extra hard drives and set up some RAID 0 array for optimal performance.
Last night I was ready to put this system to the test and in every thing I tried I notice this monster can take anything you throw at it and the CPU will not even notice it, streaming HD movies content from it to my PS3 was a dream come true as well as editing video which used to be a very tedious work on my old PC.
It came with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) preinstalled but I immediately made a fresh installed of Windows 7 x64 on it which by the way runs so smoothly, this is my first time ever testing a 64BIT operating system so I’m really enjoying this, I can hardly remember this is still a beta OS, can’t wait to test future builds on this system, my only concern right now are drivers and how good they will install in future builds of Win7, I’ll keep you updated. (Note: Just added 3GBs more of RAM for a total of 6GB, system can take up to 16GBs! but I don’t think that’s necessary for now lol)
Check it out HERE
Praise Song For The Day
I’m not political, however not being into politics does not stop me from appreciating poetry wherever it might be, today was a historic day for America and the world and as I watched in amazement like everyone else how the first black president of the United States officially took office, some special moment occurred as poet Elizabeth Alexander recited a beautiful poem which in my opinion portraits what America is today, I loved the poem and I hope that you will too, so if you missed the moment here it is:
Year Summary
This year has been remarkable in many ways, so many things have happened in the world, and so many things happened to me, I found some good friends, and lost some friends, I found love and then lost it, for the first time I wrote some poetry which later on I disliked, my bank failed, but I didn’t loose my money, the US got a black president despite the saying that racism would never allow such a thing to happen on this nation, I started exercising and happily lost some pounds, I read some good books but didn’t get to finish another good one, I received some good news from mother land, but the news made me uncomfortable, Why is it that some good things happen sometimes at the wrong time?
Life is like a year with its seasons, you go through changes and states of mind, this year I started to see the world as an old man, and it scared me, I learned that I’m getting experience in life, and I learned that life is really short, I found some Bible truth and it hurt me, I was lied to but I found out, Even though this is something I always knew, I finally realized that the color of the sky can change, that its blue is just an illusion, I learned what it meant to look at the world with different lens, I’m now making sure ignorance never bites me again, I have learnt that there’s always an angle of the truth which they not always want you to see, just like the hidden side of the moon, there is always this bit of the tell you must explore and find out yourself, and sometimes that bit can change the whole story.