There’s no words to describe how much I love this city.

And how many memories… in the distant and recent past, does it bring back to me…

Once upon a time, when men were men and they wrote their own device drivers (Linus dixit), there was something known as “demo compos”, where the most skilled programmers and artists in the computing world presented their creations. There were a few of these competitions, such as Assembly (in Finland) that stood upon the rest, and some of the best creations of the year were shown there. There were mythic groups, like Future Crew, and all of us PC nerds couldn’t wait to see what these geniuses could do with the computers of that era. The era of MS-DOS, 80386 in the 33Mhz clock range and 1-4 Mb of RAM.

Sometimes technical excelence was key, and they gave you things as Second Reality (from Future Crew, 1993). An experience I’ll never forget, completely unbelievable for the time.

But some other times, it was more a matter of imagination and will to do something attractive, even though theoretically inferior, technically speaking. And in that regard I’ve been always hooked to the famous “techno part” of the demo “Facts of Life”, from Witan, a Holland-based group. It’s a 1992 demo (that is, FOURTEEN years ago. Goddamit.).

And since these demos were SO tailored to the hardware of the time, it’s impossible to play them now; and you can’t imagine how long I’ve been waiting for someone to post this video on YouTube (really, I’ve been checking now and then):

Some of you will find it ridiculously simple, and you may not enjoy it at all. But I do, and I did then. I still find it remarkable, since the music was synthesized in real time (no MP3 by then) and all the graphics were produced and synchronized in real time.

Enjoy.

(BTW, you should watch it fullscreen for best stroboscopic effect, and with the sound as loud as possible… Techno! x) )

(Seen here)

Well, a very, very short comment.

Prision Break is one of the best TV shows I’ve seen lately, period. At least season 1. It’s 22 episodes, 40 minutes each, and it’s very, very worth it. Highly recommended.

I suppose it’s time to start downloading season 2…

One thing I don’t really get though… is it really such a good idea to wear white shirts when you plan to escape at night? Hummmmm…

Update: After having finished the weekly TV shows dose, I can add that: Lost is definetly going downhill. The first six episodes have been aired by now (now comes a 13-week hiatus, so no more Lost until February 7th) and it has barely kept my interest. Battlestar Galactica is going forward just so-so. And House M.D. is starting to get interesting again, mainly due to a new sublplot.

After two days offline thanks to my dear ISP (and I’m surprised it’s fixed now), I can finally blog about this.

I took the practical motorbike exam today… and passed! 1st try! Whooo-ho!!!!!!!!

I just couldn’t believe it, no kidding. I was so nervous, and so convinced there was no way I would do it the 1st time… but the fine ramp was just perfect, and just after finishing it I had a rush of adrenaline that made me so nervous… I had to finish the circuit already, and I did it just fine, but what if I had commited an error? /shrugs

So now I’m qualified to ride a motorbike. Power-limited the first two years, but so what? And my choice is clear at this moment…

Now I have to see how can I afford it. Because I’m going to, no doubt about that ;)

Well, and now… the last two episodes of Prision Break, season 1. Not a bad day, despite having to return the MacBook and being aggravated by the Apple Store once more.

Well, it seems it’s definetly going to be an Apple year. Get ready to hate.

(more…)

Today I’ve taken my last motorbike class. I think it’s silly to keep on taking classes, since I’m doing just o.k. now and I see no way I can progress any further.

So I’m taking the exam on Nov. 14th.

I’m pretty sure I’ll fail the first try (just like most people), but I’m doing my best not to, of course.

So wish me luck. I’m going to need it!

This is one of those things that piss me off.

I’ve been waiting for more than a year for the movie A Scanner Darkly. I’ve watched the pre-release trailers and waited with much anticipation. After all, a movie with Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, Wynona Ryder, directed by Richard Linklater and based upon a book by “Blade Runner ” Phillip K. Dick, with good critics in the United States should be released as usual here, shouldn’t it?

It seems not. Not only it’s been released to just 3 movie theatres in Madrid. But it’s also only been released in undubbed, subtitled version. Which is o.k. to me, was it not because in Spain that means to be relegated to the worst theatres and schedule times.

Now they are showing it in my city. But I’m still undecided. Should I go watch it at the theatre, at a time I don’t like? Or should I either watch a downloaded, also subtitled DVD-Screener I’ve got ahold from the Internet?

Maybe someday the movie industry will begin understanding people like me. Maybe not.

Guitar Hero II has an official release date in the United States of November 9th. However, somebody at Arkansas decided to start selling early, and of course the pirated ISO image has shown up a few days after in your usual bittorrent websites.

Last night it finished downloading, making it a full four-days-before-release event. I tried it last night, and today I’ve finally had the chance to give it a serious try.

If you’re a serious Guitar Hero freak, you need this one. It’s basically the same game with a few tweaks (hammer-ons and pull-offs are a bit easier this time around), a few nice details (like encores) and primarily, new songs.

In this respect, I must say I’ve already unlocked about 20 of them and they’re NO WAY nearly as cool as the original Guitar Hero ones. There’s a few cool ones, but they could have been a LOT better.

Apart from that, I must say it seems a bit harder than the original Guitar Hero. I can play any GH1 song at medium getting 5 stars and any song at hard, many of them with 4 or 5 stars too. And GH2 at medium seems quite a bit more difficult than GH1.

Anyway, for those thinking I’m a stinkin’ pirate, I’m buying this game the first day it comes out here in Spain. At least because I want to have the second guitar to play in dual player modes. But nonetheless, Red Octane should know that a) releasing games non-simultaneously sucks and b) there’s WAY better songs to be included with your next Guitar Hero release.

Well, I’ve just seen episode 5 of Lost, third season. I had been refraining from commenting since episode two, but now I have to do it: Lost is definetly going downhill, no brakes.

After a promising first episode, there is a CLEAR loss of quality in the script in episodes 2-5. Some plot threads have been forgotten, many flashbacks are next to meaningless, there’s quite a handful of unexplainable plot holes and there’s even just plain ridiculous subplots (the polar bear one is truly unbelievable). After watching episode 5 and seeing what happens in the end, I can only say there’s a huge problem with this TV show, and either it gets fixed soon or I (and a lot more people) is going to start moving on.

I don’t know what’s happening. I suspect there’s either a lack of creativity or a loss of the main script writers. Either way, it sucks. It’s years behind seasons one or two in every aspect.

Well, still a few more episodes until the middle-season stop. There’s still some (though not much) hope.

On a side note, I’m sticking to Prision Break season 1 and it rocks. It’s now my #1 TV show, since House is on a season stop and Battlestar Galactica has sucked since the beginning of season 3, too.