Yesterday I visited the new commercial center “Vialia Estación María Zambrano” which forms part of the new train station in Málaga. It impressed me. Not because it’s that special (it consists of a bunch of clothes shops, bars of type Gambrinus, Burger King and Cantina Mariachi, cinema (expensive) and bowling, nor because of its size (it’s big, like all are).
What impressed me is that I had no idea. Sure, the train station of Málaga has been a construction site for a long time, but noone had told me that they were building a commercial centre. Yesterday we passed nearby and it seemed as it had popped out of the ground like a mushroom. Anyway, welcome it is. A cinema close to home isn’t bad.
The photo is something that amused me. As in all new commercial centres, there are always a few shop that haven’t managed to finish everything for the grand inauguration day, and you see people behind the bars work as crazy to put everything in place. But with the name that this shop has, they should have been able to make it on time.
PS. In case you didn’t know, María Zambrano was a writer from Vélez-Málaga.
I like this video. It’s part of a Norwegian campaign against over-consumption. Another video in English can be found here. If you understand Norwegian, see the webpage for the campaign and a few more very good videos at handlefri.no
Interesting story about how a person were able to record details sent between an ATM machine and the bank using an MP3 player as storage device.
Hole-in-wall thief used MP3 player (Times Online)
A FRAUDSTER outwitted sophisticated banking security systems by using an ordinary MP3 music player to bug cash machines and steal customers’ credit card secrets.
I guess the politicians, the banks, lobbyists and whoever create laws nowadays will sit down and study the problem…
… and come up with some new mandatory DRM-like systems to be incorporated in all MP3 players to avoid that they are being used for such purposes. And perhaps forbid MP3 players onboard planes, just in case.
Tip of the day: Do not go to the United States of America. Not for business trips, tourism, to work, nothing. According to the US Justice Department, forreigners suspected of terrorism may now be held prisoners indefinately without rights to a trial. For details, read more in The Washington Post or search Google.
And by the way, if you already live in the US, be sure to bring your ID everywhere. This poor guy [strong scenes] went to the library of his university without bringing his ID and was given at least four electrical shocks with a stun gun by the police. I’m sure it had nothing to do with his ethnical roots. (His name is Mostafa Tabatabainejad.) More details here.
The worlds largest software company has decided that enough is enough. That white little thing from the Disney guy has had its fifteen minutes of fame. No more. All of Microsoft’s expertise on software and hardware has been brought together to design the best entertainment device ever. Old friends have been sacrificed. Large projects have been shut down. No sacrifice is too big when it comes to getting into your pockets.
And now, at last, the result is here. It is just perfect. Those few lucky ones that now carry around that stylish, charming, retro-brown thingy are filling the Internet with ecstatic praise of the newborn. Just a few, minor, hardly noticable, problems (or issues, perhaps) have been reported:
It is not compatible with all operating systems, such as Windows Vista. I guess the Zune team couldn’t afford the MSDN pack. Or perhaps they were stuck in WGA?
You may experience problems reproducing your legal music bought from irrelevant, third party providers such as MSN. (What does MSN stand for anyway?) Your normal music (not legal, that is) will probably play just fine.
Anyway, these minor disadvantages are probably outweighed by the famous usability always offered by Microsoft. I just don’t hope they kill my iPod any time zoon. I was just starting to get used to it…
Tonight, at 20:30, Herbie Hancock is playing at Teatro Cervantes in Málaga. I’m going, of course. I have no idea what he’s been doing lately, but I sure look forward to finding out.
Today, the sixth of November 2006 will probably not be remembered. It is however, an important day for people interested in wine or security. For those of us who take interest in both, it is definitely a sad one. As of today, you may no longer bring bottles of more than 100 ml liquid on any commercial plane within the european union.
“What’s the big deal?” you may ask. Well, for starters all the liquid you plan to drink from you enter the security zone on the airport till you exit it on another one, must now be bought on the airport or on the plane. That may set you back another 10 €. No big deal. It also means that the thermos-bottle my mother used to send me with hot coffee is history. Not a big deal either, but I sure appreciated it last time I had to wander Oslo airport a whole night because my connecting flight left early in the morning.
The liquid I will miss most in my hand luggage is the wine. Whenever visiting another country or when going home to Norway from Spain where I live, I really enjoyed bringing a few bottles of good local wine. And I don’t mean picking up the cheapest, most expensive or most famous bottle you can find on the duty free. I mean searching the local wine shop for something new, something I hadn’t tried before or perhaps something I tried once and really liked and want to share with my family and friends. That is now history. Airlines advice you not to check in bottles (and hold you liable if they break and damage other luggage) and there are few 100 ml Rioja’s on the market. For me this is not a detail. It is something I enjoyed and I hope that this has been taken away from me for a reason.
The problem is that I fear that the reason is all but noble. Sure, there are liquid explosives on the market and sure, the failed terror action in London supposedly intented to blow up airplanes mixing chemicals, but I just don’t buy it. First of all, it is not at all clear that the London plot would have worked. Furthermore explosives can be brought onto a plane in many textures, and I haven’t seen any bans on chocolate bars yet. I also doubt that security personell is able to analyze the true content of you shampoo bottles, no matter if they are miniature sized and stuffed in a zip bag.
I hope I am wrong, and that these measures will improve airline security. However, my deep and worrying suspicion is that this regulation was passed due to a combination of trigger happy, uninformed politicians and lobbyists from airlines and airports seeking better profits.
My plan? Spend as little as possible on airports and onboard planes.
It crashes. One out of every three or four sessions end in a crash. Usually when clicking something or when some large task is being performed, but sometimes when the program is completely idle.
It is slow. Every time I click the mouse, the program takes at least half a second to react. On a Pentium D with 1024 MB DDR2 ram. Browsing through the album covers goes fine for about 10-20 albums, and then it suddenly hangs for 10-20 seconds. And every time I shut the program down (given that it hasn’t crashed) a dialog tells me (for about half a minute) that iTunes is updating the library. During that time the computer is practically unresponsive.
It does not update my iPod correctly. My iPod has several podcasts lying around, even though they have been listened to and resynced. I think it has something to do with me using the functionality “Only sync checked items”.
Is iTunes for Windows really just an emulation of some OSX program? Is my library too large? (15000 songs.) Should I run as an administrator?
(PS. I’m especially cranky today because I just updated to version 7.0.2 and found no improvement and it crashed on me the first three times I opened it.)
(PS2. Yes, my computer is working nicely. Memtest gives no errors. I have no Spyware nor virues. Checkdisk doesn’t detect any problems.)
Yesterday I visited the new commercial center “Vialia Estación María Zambrano” which forms part of the new train station in Málaga. It impressed me. Not because it’s that special (it consists of a bunch of clothes shops, bars of type Gambrinus, Burger King and Cantina Mariachi, cinema (expensive) and bowling, nor because of its size (it’s big, like all are).
