Mini holidays to Southampton II

Finally my holidays are over. We made it back home about 3am last night, after a long long drive. I shouldn't be awake, honestly, but the removal van came early and now the whole apartment is full with unpacked boxes. Oh, rest, who needs it?

Saturday was a great day. We drove to Porstmout and spend day over there. We got to the top of Spinnaker Tower. They views from there were unbelieveable, specially since it was a very clear day. After that, instead of taking the elevator down, we took the stairs. It was Red Nose Day, so the management donated 1 pound per person walking down instead of taking the elevator, and we also gave some money too. There were 500 steps, and believe me, my muscles are still aching from it. That tells me that I should get my ass fit again. Oh well, am gonna purchase a treadmill at the end of the month, so that'll help get me fit again.

Spinnaker Tower

                                            Views from Spinnaker Tower

                                            Views from Spinnaker Tower

                                                          Views from Spinnaker Tower

                                           Walking on air at Spinnaker Tower

After such a glory day, we came back to the hotel where I worked till midnight. Then slept. Sunday we left at 3pm. Stopped at Northampton to visit a friend for a couple of hours, and eventually we got home.

Now that my holidays are over, I will have more time from my blog. Keep checking this week for new updates.

Mini holidays to Southampton

I have to apologize to all of you for keeping you waiting so long for the next post. This is because I have been on a short holiday in Southampton, down in south England. In fact, I still am on holiday; so you will probably have to wait a few days for a decent post. Nonetheless, let me tell you a little bit about how things have been going so far.

  We left Sunday night, and drove for 8 hours until we got to Southampton. We arrived late, at around 2.30am, so we went straight to sleep On Monday, my partner and I went to visit Stonehenge. Spent most of the day there, had lunch quick lunch on TGI Friday's, and then went to work for a couple of hours. Yep, you guessed right, lucky me, I work from home. :D

Stonehenge

Not a lot happen on Tuesday, since I had to work all day. Wednesday was a really great day. We drove to Poole and spent most of the day at the beach. It was a bit grey and cold early in the morning, but it got better as the day moved on, and we ended up with a beautiful sunny day.

 Poole's Sandbanks

  Poole's Sandbankseng

We had lunch at Haverster and then head to meet some friends in the afternoon. Later on I went and work for a couple of hours, not long, just 2, in fact. At night we went to the casino. My partner signed me up as a member and we got the first round half price (we paid one, and got the other one for free). As he was ordering, I looked across the bar and saw a man hitting a woman real hard. So much so that she fell on the floor and stayed there for a couple of minutes. Later on I had to give a police statement of what I saw, and as it turns out, the woman was his sister. We had a lot of fun during the night. It was late already to join the tournament poker table, but we played roulette and black jack, and by the end of the night, with the winnings we made, we paid all the drinks and still had a fifty pounds extra to get home.

 Thursday was even busier. We got up early, had breakfast and then I started to work. After that we catched lunch with some friends at Pilgrim House, a Chinese restaurant with all-you-can-eat buffet. Great place, really, hardly recommended. Awesome value and great food.

 Only a couple of hours later, we went for drinks at the Standing Order, as it was a leaving doo thing for my partner's relocation. We had a great night with the guys; a night full of laughter that it will take us all a very longtime to forget. We made back to the hotel very late that night, and very drink too, I have to say.

 Today am working. We moved hotels this morning after breakfast. Thankfully my headache is gone. Tomorrow we will go for a day out in Southampton. And Sunday, after 3pm, we will make our way back for another joyful 8 hours drive; not before doing a little stop at Northampton to visit a friend.

I will keep you posted with more updates soon, so don't forget to check back again next week. Until then, have a great weekend folks!

Amazon Mechanical Turk

I discover Amazon Mechanical Turk about a year ago, more or less; just flipping through my Amazon Affliliates Account. I was very surprised by it, having tried other work-from-home jobs that turned out to be fake, or other sites that, even though the weren't fake, the minimum amount you had to reach for payout it made it almost impossible for you to see any of the money, and you more or less ended up working for free.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is not like that at all.

How this works, is, in theory, very simple. Big companies like Youtube, Ebay, or even Amazon itself do continuously outsource menial and repetitive task that usually a computer can't do. For instance, lets say that you are looking for a particular video in youtube, and you type in the search box 'Whitesnake, greatest hits' but all you get is a video of the latest hype of Lady Gaga. Now that, my friend, is disappointing. The workers at the Mechanical Turk will get little jobs (aka HITS) on thousands of videos, where they have to classify whether or not they are truly Whitesnake, or Lady Gaga. This is usually very easy to do, and you mostly watch the videos and tick in the boxes in the ready-made questionnaires.Some other times, the videos will be of adult, x-rated material, but you are told so before you decide to accept the HIT, so it is entirely up to you whether you want to watch it or not. Ebay also outsources a great deal of his work, too. This means usually checking that products are in the correct categories.

 But this is not everything you can do with Mechanical Turk. Other jobs are: checking for keywords (usually people) on a particular website; translating small documents or sentences from one language to another (that is, if you speak any other language than English); transcribing audio texts; checking products information; or even writting small articles. These are only a few of the examples you will find in Mechanical Turks.

 Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it is about to get better. One of the greatest thing about this website, is that you can register for free (truly, for free) and start working right away. For certain HITS you will require to pass a qualification, you can do so within the same system, and if you pass it, you will be able to do that particular HIT, and any other upcoming HITS in the same category. Some other times, certain HITS won't be available to you because of the location of your country. Don't despair, there are millions and millions to choose from.

 Money, money! What about the money? Am sure you are wondering about that. Every HIT pays differently, you can earn anything from 1 cent to 50 dollars on a single small job. How much do you earn, it will depend on how much time and effort you are willing to put in it. How do you get paid, then? There is no minimum you can request for payout. For certain countries, they will be able to transfer directly to your account or send you a check. Unfortunately, at this stage, you can't withdraw your winnings in many countries, but you can transfer it to your Amazon account and use it later to buy whatever you want to. I usually do this and get all my DVDs that way. Some other times, I will buy something more expensive, like a laptop, and then sell it on Ebay for the same price I paid, so I can get the cold hard cash that I paid for it.

Pasta con Atun / Pasta with Tuna

Pasta con Atun /Pasta with Tuna

Ingredientes                                     

• Pasta
• Atun
• Tomate
• Queso
• Sal y pimienta
• Oregano        
• Aceite 
• Mantequilla          
• Maiz 

 

Ingredients                                     

• Pasta
• Tuna
  
• Tomato
• Cheese
• Salt and Pepper
• Oregano        
  
• Oil
• Butter 
• Sweetcorn

  Preparacion

Pon la pasta (puede ser cualquier pasta, para este plato yo prefiero usar espirales) a hervir con el aceite, un poco de mantequilla, sal, pimienta y oregano. Para darle mas sabor a la pasta, echale tambien un par de dientes de ajo, bien pelados y enteros, o pelados y troceados. Deja hervir la pasta hasta que este 'al dente'. 


Frie un poco el atun junto con el maiz (tambien puedes echarle un poco de cebolla troceada), y echale el tomate frio. Cuando este lista la pasta, escurrela y echale un poco de mantequilla.  Anadele la salsa, y echale queso rallado y oregano por encima. Listo para comer!

  Preparation

Put the pasta to boil (it can be any pasta, but I prefer to use spirals for this dish) with oil, butter, salt, pepper and oregano. To give more taste to the pasta, you can add som garlic to it; either peeled and chopped, or just peeled. Let the pasta to boil until is done 'al dente'.


Fry a little bit the tuna along with the sweetcorn (to get more flavour, you can also add a little bit of chopped oniones); and add the tomatoe sauce. Once the pasta is done, drain it and add a bit more butter to it. Mix it with the sauce and add greated cheese on top. Ready to enjoy!

Ironclad Movie Review

Is the year 1215 and the rebels barons of England have forced their King John (Paul Giamatti: The Illusionist, Cinderella Man) to put his royal seal to the Magna Carta, a document that upheld the rights of free-men. Yet, within a few months of signing the Magna Carta, the king reneged on his word and backed by the Pope, he assembles a mercenary Danish army led by Tiberius (Vladimir Kulich: The 13th Warrior, Highlander (Director's Cut) on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back to his tyrannic rule.

Baron Albany (Brian Cox: The Escapist, Zodiac (Widescreen Edition), Marshall, a templar monk (James Purefoy: Rome, George and the Dragon) who has taken vows of chastity and nonviolence and a band of rebels are forced to take Rochester Castle in an attempt to defend the people from their king until reinforcements arrive. During the siege, Marshall's vows are continuously tempted by Lady Isabel (Kate Mara: Transsiberian, Iron Man 2 (Single-Disc Edition) and her heaving bosom.

 Filmmaker Jonathan English deploys robus production values, plunging us into squalid medieval society so effectively that we can feel the mud between our toes. The special effects cleverly extend the images, and an specially strong cast createds shaded characters we can identify with.

'Ironclad' is at its strongest when it comes to the physical side of things. It does not shy away from gory violence. Heads, hands and feet go flying, blood splatters all over the the camera's lens, and there's a particularly nasty bit involving a man and a catapult. The weapons feel like instruments of destruction rather than Medieval-chic accessories, and often succeed in making viewers wince.


The fight choreography is particularly impressive - characters look like soldiers trying to tear each others' hearts out, as opposed to actors trying to high-five each other's swords. The action sacrifices style and appearance for physicality and brutality, which results in a refreshing level of authenticity.

The 13th century England recreated looks good enough to fool anyone but a history buff. It's also a strange mixture of boyish filmmaking excess and messy historical detail.

 All in all, if you like the genre, you won't be dissapointed. The film certainly ticks many of the boxes of an action blockbuster.

                                                         Ironclad Trailer

Tortilla de Patatas/ Spanish Omellete

Tortilla de Patatas / Spanish Omellete

Ingredientes                                     

• Patatas                                
• Cebolla
• Milk
• Eggs    
• Sal y pimienta          
• Aceite             

Ingredientes 

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Milk
• Eggs
• Salt & Pepper 

    Preparacion

Pela las patatas y trocealas en pequenos dados. Ponlas en la sarten a freir (con el aceite bien caliente) y dejalas freir a fuego lento (la mitad de la sarten de aceite). Echa la cebolla troceada cuando las patatas esten a medio freir.

Mientras se frien, bate 4-5 huevos con un chorrito de leche, sal y pimienta. Cuando las patatas esten doradas y tiernas por dentro, echa la mezcla de los huevos. Dejalo un minuto mientas vas redondeando la tortilla, despues dale la vuelta (con un plato) y dejala freir un poco mas. Dale la vuelta un par de veces mas, dejandola un minuto cada vez. Lista! Que aproveche!

  Preparation

Peel and chop the potatoes in little dices. Pour them into a frying pan with hot oil (about half the size of the frying pan with oil). Fry them at minimum heat. Put the onion, chopped, when the potatoes are half done.

While the potatoes fries, whisk the eggs (about 4-5) and mix them with a bit of milk, salt and pepper. Pour the mix on top of the potatoes, leave it for about a minute while doing a round figure and turn it around with a plate (so you won't burn yourself). Turn again a couple more times while leaving it to fry for about a minute each time. Done!! Enjoy!

BrutusShutdown con VB 6: Apaga tu ordenardor mientras duermes

Cuantas veces nos hemos puesto una pelicula en el ordenardor, y nos hemos quedado durmierndo con el ordenador encendido? Te has preguntando alguna vez porque, con la de cosas que puedes hacer con un ordenador o portatil, no puedes ponerle un temporizador para que se apague solo cuando te pones una pelicula, documental o serie?

 Pues bien, ahora gracias a mi amigo Peyu (puedes visitar aqui su blog, PeyuBlog) el problema se ha acabado. Peyu ha creado una pequena aplicacion que instalas en tu pc de una forma muy sencilla, inicias el temporizador, y listo.

El programa en cuestion se llama BrutusShutdown. Puedes descargarlo de forma gratuita desde Megaupload; tan solo ocupa 12kb, asi que no tardara nada.

Una vez que lo descargues, lo descomprimes:

Y dentro de la carpeta, pinchas en la aplicacion BrutusShutdown.exe (los demas archivos son para Visual Basic 6.0) y te aparecera lo siguiente:

Ya esta listo para usuarlo. Simplemente introduce el numero de horas o minutos que quieras y pincha en iniciar, y pasado ese tiempo el ordenador se apagara automaticamente.

Si os ha gustado este programilla, pasaos por el blog de Peyu y darle las gracias. Tambien podeis compartirlo con vuestros amigos.

Saltarse limitaciones y descargar videos desde Megavideo (Parte II)

Esta es la segunda parte de Saltarse las limitaciones y descargar videos desde Megavideo. Haz click en el link o pincha aqui para ver la primera parte.

• SOLUCIÓN 5 (Utilizar un proxy): La mejor opcion es utilizar un proxy (ya sea automatico o manual). Aunque es necesario encontrar uno que no este bloqueado por Veoh. En esta propuesta, veremos el uso de proxies de forma automatica.

1- Descarga Firefox (si aun no lo tienes. Ver post anterior para ver como hacerlo). Una vez que lo ejecutes,
2- Descarga Proxy Sel, es un addon (plug-in, complemento) de Mozilla para cambiar con un solo click to IP y puerto. Una vez instalado, reinicia Firefox.

 3- Una vez reiniciado Firefox, veremos Proxy Sel en la barra de herramientas de Firefox. A continuacion, debes cargar uno o mas listados proxys en Proxy Sel. Puedes hacerlo manualmente o importando un listado de direcciones proxy.

http://www.checkedproxylists.com/proxylists_high_anonymous_us.html
http://www.steganos.com/?area=updateproxylist 
http://www.samair.ru/proxy/type-22.htm 
http://www.aliveproxy.com/us-proxy-list/ 
http://www.my-proxy.com/list/proxy.php 
http://en.proxy.net.pl/proxy6.html 
http://www.anonymitychecker.com/page2.html 
http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html  
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html 
http://www.freeproxylist.cn/ 
http://proxy.waikey.com/proxyindex.php  
http://www.myqz.cn/http://ipopf.info/proxy/ 
http://www.haozs.net/proxy/index.php 
http://pass.com.ru/index.php

4- Cargamos las direcciones en Proxy Sel. Para hacer esto, nos dirigimos a acualquierda de las webs indicadas arriba, por ejemplo, pinchamos en el primer link.
http://www.checkedproxylists.com/proxylists_high_anonymous_us.html 
 Nos mostrara cientos de direcciones que podemos cargar de forma manual (1) o de forma automatica(2) importando el fichero .cvs

 

 Para cargarlo de forma manual (1), pulsamos en el link marcado como 1, y nos aparecera lo siguiente:

 Apuntamos la direccion de IP y el puerto del proxy escogido y lo introducimos de forma manual en el Proxy Sel tal y como se observa en la siguientes imagenes, y pinchamos en ok: 

 Para cargarlo de forma automatica(2), debemos descargar el fichero con la extension .cvs desde el link que aparece arriba marcado con el numero 2. Introducimos el codigo de verificacion, y lo descargamos. 

Una vez descargado, guardamos el fichero en Proxy Sel de la siguiente forma:

Elegimos un pais que no este en la lista, y finalmente activamos el Proxy (ya sea de forma manual, o automatica) pinchando en el icono de las pantallitas que se ve en la imagen (para desactivarlo, volvemos a pincharlo)

Las pantallitas se pondran en verde, y con esto ya podeis acceder a SeriesYonkies, PeliculasYonkis, Veoh, y cualquier otro.

 Cuando se utilizan proxys, es normal que se haga una precarga de la web, y en algunos casos, google te pedira un codigo de verificacio para hacer busquedas (esto es perfectamente normal, para comprobar que eres humano y no una maquina). 

Saltarse limitaciones y descargar videos desde Megavideo (Parte I)

Como todos sabemos, Megavideo nos impone limitaciones a las cuentas de usuarios que no son premium. Es decir, sobre todo por las noches, cuando estamos viendo alguna pelicula o alguna serie, despues de un rato viendola, nos obliga a esperar entre 72 y 120 minutos para poder seguir viendo videos. Afortunadamente, hay varias soluciones a esto:

• SOLUCIÓN 1 (precargar y navegar como no-contectado). Para que esta solucion te funcione, lo que debes hacer es poner a cargar una o varias peliculas/series dandole al play, y justo cuando empienza le das al pause; asi se quedara cargando (lo veras en la barra gris debajo). Una vez que te hayan cargado, pinchas en tu navegador donde dice archivo/file y le das a 'trabajar sin conexion'. Esta opcion es un poco lenta, pero les vale a las personas que no les cambia la IP y no pueden saltarse las limitaciones apagando y encendiendo el router. 

  

• SOLUCIÓN 2 (Abrir el video varias veces): Esta solucion puede resultar algo lenta y tediosa, pero funciona a la perfeccion con conexiones mas lentas. Para empezar, abres el video que quieras ver, le das a cargar y pinchas en pause para que siga cargando. Despues abres el mismo video en otra pestana, y le das a cargar mas o menos por la mitad (pinchando en el centro de la barra). De esta forma, puedes ver la primera parte de la pelicula en la primera pestana, y cuando salte la limitacion, te vas a la segunda pestana y continuas viendolo por donde lo dejaste. 

• SOLUCIÓN 3 (Reiniciar el Router/Cambiar IP):  En el caso de que no funcione la solucion anterior, podemos combinarla con esta. Primero sal de la pagina de Megavideo, borra archivos temporales, cookies, etc desde tu navegador, y reinicia el router. La limitacion de tiempo de Megavideo se basa en la IP del usuario. En este caso, para los que tengais IP dinamica, reiniciando el router tendreis una nueva IP con lo que podeis seguir viendo viendos sin limitacion. 

• SOLUCIÓN 4 (Descargar el video): Esta solucion es la que mayor calidad ofrece. Actualmente hay dos formas de descargar el video. La primera, es desde Megaupload. En todos los videos de Megavideo hay un link que nos permite descargarlo. Esta opcion es mas lenta y ocupa mas espacio porque las descargas son de mayor calidad. Tambien podemos reproducirlo al tiempo que lo estamos viendo (esto se explica mas abajo). La otra opcion es descargar el video directamente desde Megavideo; tendra menor calidad, pero es mucho mas rapido y ocupa menos espacio. Esto se puede realizar de diversas formas, pero aqui os voy a mostrar como hacerlo con un plug-in de Firefox llamado 'DownloadHelper'. Aqui os muestro paso a paso como hacerlo:                                                                                             1- Descargamos Firefox de forma gratuita desde Firefox                                                                                                2- Desde el navegador de Firefox, vamos DownloadHelper y pinchamos en 'Anadir a Firefox'          

Let me Google that for you

Ok, I do love 'let me google that for you'. This works real nice when you are trying to show to your boss or to your friends what a smart ass you are. So, how does it work? Very simple, you click here or simply type in Google the address 'http://lmgtfy.com/',or 'let me google that for you', which is basically what it stands for. Then you will see this:

Ok, tengo que reconocer que me encanta esta web 'let me google that for you', que viene a significar algo asi como 'dejame que busque yo eso en google'. Esto es la cana de Espana cuando te quieres hacer el listillo con tu jefe o con tus colegas. Como funciona? Muy simple, pincha aqui, o vete a Google y escribe la direccion 'http://lmgtfy.com/' o 'let me google that for you', que es el acronimo de la web. Despues, veras lo siguiente:

Like in Google, you type in what you are looking for, like so:
Al igual que en Google, escribe lo que estas buscando, asi:

 Notice the link? You can now either share the link, or click on go just under the link, to see the search results. Et voila! This is the result:

Ves el link que hay abajo? Ahora puedes, o bien compartirlo, o clickear debajo del link, donde dice 'go' para ver los resultados. Et voila! Aki estan:

 If you want to see the full works again, click here:
Para ver de nuevo como funciona, pincha aqui:

Wordle: Totally Pointless but Real Fun

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

 Below are some of the designs that I created for my blog. Or you can view my full galery here

 Wordle es una aplicacion, mas bien un juguete, para generar 'nubes de palabras' con el texto que le introduzcas. Bien desde el feed de tu blog/website, o bien introduciendo las palabras manualmente. La nube resalta mas aquellas palabras que aparecen con mas frecuencia en la fuente la fuente original. Puedes cambiar las nubes con diferentes fuentes, disenos y colores. La imagenes que creas con Wordle son tuyas para usarlas como quieras. Puedes imprimirlas o guardarlas en la galeria de Wordle para compartirlas despues con tus amigas.

 Debajo muestro algunos de los disenos que he creado para mi blog. O puedes ver mi galleria completa aqui.

Go on, try it. You know you want to.
Venga, pruebalo, yo se que quieres.

Reasons Not to Get and IPhone

Are you thinking about getting an IPhone? Think again.

Drive Angry 3D Movie Review

I am a fan of Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, City of Angels, Windtalkers, Lord of War, Bangkok Dangerous...). So this past Sunday, after watching the trailer of Drive Angry I've decided to go to the cinema and watch it in 3D. I mean, to me, it had the right ingredients for a good action movie: Nicolas Cage, William Fichtner (Armageddon, Equilibrium, Prison Break ...), Billy Burke and of course, a hot chick: Amber Heard (The Informers, Pineapple Express ). To be honest, I expected the blond chick to be annoying as hell, you know, the sort of annoying like in Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, where you have this girl following you around all the time, but instead of helping is doing nothing else than getting in your way all the time. I have to admit that  this was not the case, and the blond girl wasn't as stupid as they are usually portrayed in American films. However, I was still in for a big disappointment with this movie.

 The plot was stupidly simple: John Milton (Nicolas Cage) is a criminal that has broken out of hell in order to kill Jonah King (Billy Burke), a cult leader that tricked Milton's daughter into joining his followers when Milton died; only to kill her and her husband and steal their baby -Milton's granddaughter- to be sacrificed in a Satanist ritual.

Drive Angry 3D

 Milton drives around interrogating people to find out where and when the ritual is going to take place. He stops at a diner and meets Piper (Amber Head). Soon after this, his car breaks down and he takes Piper with him in his ex-boyfriend's car after beating him up for cheating and beating Piper up. From this point on the movie gets worst and worst; and it seems to have been put together by the same strange threads that put together The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

 All during the ride to location  of the sacrifice, The Accountant (William Fichtner) is following Milton to take him back to hell. Although you don't really know if he is after him or giving him a helping hand.

 The action scenes seemed very repetitive and lack originality. The soundtrack didn't impress me either. And the dialogues were very dull, if you had the movie without them, like in Wallie, you would still have gotten the same results.

All in all, it was a huge waste of time and money. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, "Drive Angry 3D" may look like deranged and depraved exploitation trash and it may sound like deranged and depraved exploitation trash but don't let that fool you--it really is deranged and depraved exploitation trash.

                                                                   Drive Angry 3D