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Today this blog has been upgraded to version 3.3.1 of WordPress. It has also been upgraded to version 3.7.3 of its theme Atahualpa… Please, report here any eventual bug. Thanks! Unfortunately, due to new rules imposed by WordPress.org, the excellent theme Atahualpa is currently less flexible for blog administrators (webmasters) cause it no longer allows1 to include PHP scripts through it. Wrong WordPress decision, we say…
Happy birthday, mr. Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, and congratulations for your 70 years of huge dedication to your country’s, Portugal, and your favorite club’s, Sport Lisboa e Benfica, football (soccer for USA).  What else can be said? My favorite team is FC Porto, ever since, I had no many opportunities to follow Eusébio’s career live, I do not like Benfica at all but, mr. Eusébio da Silva Ferreira is a gentleman and I do love gentlemen, I do love football (soccer for USA), I do love simplicity and professional dedication based on pure and exclusive one’s colors love1 which are, nowadays, life values pretty much rare, getting every day even rarer, but still existing on this pleasant football character. May the gods be with you, black panther…
I guess I am not clever enough to understand why French people removed an ‘A’1 from the surname of Nicolas Sarkozy right after that group of financial games players, given by the name of Standard & Poor's, lowered the credit rating of France from AAA to AA+. I don’t understand, but they must be right, for sure. Yes, French are always right… and left. I know how difficult is for any ordinary EU citizen to understand this odd situation when one of the EU “spiritual” leaders in this wide European crisis is treated pretty much similarly as black sheep like Greece and Portugal have been. Said by other words, France has been caught in the middle of this alphabet waltz being played by those numbers addicted brains seated somewhere in some stage of a tall building, somewhere in New York, right in the side of the enemy. I also know that our “friends” from France were thinking that it was inevitable for countries like Portugal and Greece to get into financial troubles, despite French graceful efforts to help those second class Europeans, but such a shame would never hit the great France, just because France… is “la France”. I know all that, yes I do, but I really don’t know what they, French, have in mind by removing that ‘A’ from Sarkozy’s name. I don’t know but they must be right, for sure. Yes, French are always right… and left. Agencies like Standard & Poor's have already removed all As and Bs2 and probably all other letters from there to Z3 to Greece, Portugal and Ireland credit ratings. Being that there are no more letters to remove from those countries’ ratings, such agencies had to move their attention to other countries from what they can remove more letters. But, ladies and gentlemen, from France? Helloooo… Mssr Nicolas Sarkozy and mademoiselle Angela Merkel are, in European Union, not more not less than the upmost “in” couple since the first economical cracks happened in this supposedly indestructible 27′s Europe. Those two, have been in the last months giving everybody in Europe lessons of Economy, Finances & Civic Behaviors, mainly to those bad boys4 who were not only unable to control their national debt but, even worse, have dared to wasting the European funds provided mainly by the bigger countries like Germany and… France! European Union is in danger! What was supposed to be the salvation of its members, is now in an apparent irreversible process of self-destruction. Keep going like this, one day we will spell European Union not like we always did but something like “E rope n Uni n” or so. Besides, how will we be able to call each other in Europe if we keep removing from everybody’s name one or two letters every time our country’s credit rating degrades? This is a serious issue. This is too much. This is much beyond our strengths. First, they removed countries’ autonomy. Then, they removed people’s dignity. Now, they’re removing people’s name. What’s next? Well, if we believe that France will follow Portuguese steps, soon or later we’ll see bunches of Chinese executives in France buying some “souvenirs” and holding huge Chinese shops… May the gods be with people without As, Bs, Cs, Ds, Es,…
Friday, 13th! A good day to remind you that I do not take any responsibility over the results you might get if you follow instructions shown in this, the previous and the next posts about this very same subject. I strongly advise you to skip this post and similar ones if you know nothing at all about computers, routers and Internet/Intranet networking. Run away from bad luck, will you? Last part of previous post about this very same subject ended up with the wrap-up of topics and following steps to get a Samsung TV set connected to Internet or, generally speaking, to a home LAN and make it share music and video with a local computer. See it here. Our LAN or IntranetAs a matter of fact we want to have home a simple network which I show here schematically:  Let’s split the above diagram into three parts:
If you look at the diagram with the attention of someone that is paying attention, even being a beginner like me, you will see some sets of numbers split by dots. Those are the IP address or Internet Protocol address. An IP address is an unique number that every computer or computerized device connected to Internet or to an Intranet is assigned to. Tipically, the IP address assigned to the router provided by your ISP is 192.168.1.1, which is the case of ZON-HUB. Of course, I will not spend time explaining IP addresses because if you still don’t know this, then it’s time to say “Houston, we have a problem!”. While any computer directly connected to ZON-HUB will get an IP address from it (DHCP function), the IP address of computer PC1, which we will use as media server, should be set manually out of the DHCP range previously defined in the ZON-HUB. In this case, 192.168.1.33, because the DHCP range was defined by me from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.32. However, we will get back to ZON-HUB configuration. Preparing the Client BridgeThe first hard work is flashing the slave router, the D-Link DIR-320 in this case. And hard means really hard! The firmware you need to install on DIR-320, the DD-WRT, is free of charge. In my opinion it’s much better than the originally installed on that router. But its installation needs the patience of a scientist. A wrong step may bring your router down to the vegetative state. Anyhow, you’re a courageous technician so the question now is what and how to do it? Just read following questions and click given links. Do not start any action over the router without being sure that you really understood what you have to do and without reading my tips after following questions.
Now that you already have read the above questions and the documents I gave you links to, it’s time to provide you some pragmatic knowledge and wise tips. Referring to previous fourth (4th) questions:
Preparing the ZON-HUBOnce you have your Client Bridge configured you need to discharge all your fears of touching the ZON Multimedia hardware, meaning, the ZON-HUB router. There are a couple of parameters you need to change for having it accepting the new client, the DIR-320. Let’s then go step by step, easy and confidently but, once again, read everything very carefully before you take any action over your hardware:
Where are we now? We’ve got a picture of our home LAN. We have both routers already configured. Router ZON-HUB and client machines are up and running. We haven’t tested the new section of our home LAN. You have to wait until next post. Writing this technical handbooks requires work like hell and I am just a newbie, a beginner who doesn’t earn a single cent for this… May the gods be with you… Three good reasons for not reading this post:
You can see then that this is a very much from me to myself post. I do not want to suffer from the disease of other parents who think their children are the best of the world. My children are what they are and mean to me what they mean. No matter what they mean, I think it’s just between me and them. But the conjunction of a birthday, with the celebration of a death (because I died as a smoker when my son was born), the pride felt on a single and singular moment by a live human being generated by us and the pride of showing how good we feel when we are able to feel that pride, it’s the ultimate experience of parenthood lived at the most deep inside of ourselves. When I look at a baby who is being shown by his father I always tell that father how much he and his son look alike. When I look at a baby who is being shown by his mother, I always tell that mother how much she and her son look alike. Guys, a newborn is very often a very normal human baby presenting very often resemblances with another very normal human baby, only. That’s all. I never was able to see resemblances between a recently born infant and any of his parents. This might be a physical or intellectual limitation of mine but to see resemblances between a newborn and any of his parents it’s as much impossible for me as to see art in a piece of shit inadvertently left by a dog inside a gallery of the Musée du Louvre. Everything one loves is loved by that one’s very specific ability of loving. Nobody loves the same thing the same way, nobody should try imposing others the way they love like. I am not imposing my son and my happiness for having left smoking when he was born. I am not also saying that my son is the best guitar player in the world. What I am doing here is just putting in my blog, in a post written by me, a moment of rare beauty: the unforgettable pleasure of an accomplished work. No quality or quantity is being discussed here. Just the pleasure of the accomplishment, the pleasure of doing things, the pleasure of watching with pleasure the work we have been working for, proudly powered by ourselves. Is the act of conferring knighthood upon wrong? No man knows what to be a father is like before he really experiments to be a father. Good parenthood cannot be taught. Parenthood has to be lived and empirically learned. There is everywhere much bullshit about parenthood, the best and the worst. Actually, many of the self-proclaimed best parents are crappy parents creating future crappy parents. I wish human beings were that much simple to allow reduction of parenthood to an arithmetic addition kind a 2+1 is… I rather say that one is a good father if he was a good procreator. Only because the act of procreating among human kind has to be a clearly intelligent and supreme act. This is necessary and sufficient. The rest, I mean, after a good procreation act, being father is a more or less successful application of the trial and error methodology. Trying hard to be a good father (or mother) is a mistake. Wisdom tell us that only the son of your son can be the undeniable demonstration of your good performance as a father. However, the transition of the your “you” to your grandson fails very often. Sometimes that failure is caused by you, sometimes by your son, other by your grandson but very often people are too much stressed to care about that. Will you run a failure mode and effects analysis to get into a conclusion about your performance as a parent? So be it like it is, let it be, let it happen and might the gods be with procreators and procreated, fathers and sons… Yes, sometimes I remind myself I am a graduated electrical engineer and then I start dedicating part of my free time investigating stuff which has no secrets at all to others but are a pretty much black hole for me. That was the case when one of these days I looked at my very beautiful1, old and discontinued 32″ LCD TV set, model part number LE32-C550-J1WXXC, a nice creation of Samsung, and I decided I wanted it connected to Internet. Reading the part number which defines the model, you can see I am talking about a C-series or 5-series TV, information that will be relevant at some point of this technical wandering. By the way, speaking of technical wanderings, LCD refers to the technology used for the screen emitting image which is one among four technologies:
 Nowadays, modern TV sets are almost by themselves a complete media center as they are able, beyond their main function which is to show you hundreds of TV channels, to read audio files (like mp3) and video files (like avi or Audio Video Interleave). To achieve that, meaning, to use your TV set as a music player or home cinema source, recent TV sets have a wide choice of sockets where you can plug several types of devices like a PlayStation or X-box, a camcorder, a DVD player, a CD player or even your computer, either it is a laptop or a desktop. Gold over blue, you can also connect your TV set directly to Internet without needing a PC in between. Referring to the above mentioned TV set, you can even wireless connect it if you buy the highly expensive link stick wireless adapter from Samsung, part number WIS09ABGN, connect it to the USB socket on the rear or side panel of your TV and hope to be a lucky guy if the wireless adapter and your Router (computing) are compatible. Going short, a good TV set needs the following additional sockets to complete your happiness:
For those having a medium-class economical power, to have home some devices like LCD TV sets, computers and at least a router through what you get your paid Internet, it is a pretty much normal thing. It’s my case: I hired ZON Multimedia, a fucking expensive and arrogant ISP (Internet Service Provider), therefore I have installed a ZON-HUB2 router which, actually, owns a very nice design3.  Where are we now? We have a Samsung TV set, we have a ZON Internet router, we have at least one computer where we have stored thousands of mp3 and movies and now we want to connect our TV to our home LAN, Local Area Network. Making it easy, we want our TV set connected to Internet, we want it to give us music and movies when our house is full of friends whom we want to impress positively. Ok, good reasons to buy the Samsung link stick:
Now, good reasons to not buy the link stick:
Good, now that you accepted the challenge let me tell you advantages of using an additional router to connect your TV to your home LAN:
Where are we now? You have decided to use an additional router to extend your home network and like so to connect your TV to Internet and to the mp3 and movies you have stored on your computer. Before you start, you need to know a couple of other things. Let’s start with AllShare, a protocol to share media files using a Samsung TV set by means of DNLA. Meaning, in fact we are talking about DNLA but with a name given by Samsung, mixed with a couple of minor changes. If you want to know more about DNLA, just click the word and you will be redirected to Wikipedia. Explaining the concept DNLA it is not part of this post’s scope, therefore let’s step forward. What it is important here is you to check if your TV is DNLA compatible. If it is not, stop reading this post here because it won’t contribute to your happiness. Another important check action is you to get very much familiar with your additional router and somewhat familiar with your ZON-HUB router. Regarding the first, you gotta know a lot about routers and DD-WRT compatibility. Regarding the latter, a few parameters must be changed if you want to connect it to a second router in the way we need to connect them. If you have not a DD-WRT compatible router or if you don’t want to touch your ZON-HUB because you don’t know how or you’re just afraid of doing it, stop reading this post here because it won’t contribute to your happiness. Anyhow, many of the thoughts and truths revealed here are very often applicable to other hardware than the one I specify here.  It is the time now to introduce you to my additional router. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the old D-Link DIR-320 which is a model already discontinued and about what I don’t know what is its actual replacement. What your router has to be:
This DIR-320 will be a slave router or, by other words, this additional router will connect to your ZON-HUB router on a very passive basis because it will be configured as Client Bridge. Working this way, the DIR-320 is no more than a wireless link (bridge) between the room where you have your main router, probably your office, and the room where you want to connect your main TV and other computers, which I believe they will be in your living room. This means as well that this slave router will not be in charge of complex functions like Firewall (computing) or DHCP which will be exclusively part of the ZON-HUB job. All this will cost you nothing if you already own a spare router or will cost something about sixty (60) euros if you have to buy a router. You may ask, for that price why don’t I buy the Samsung dongle which costs about the same? Well, my advice is: read again the pros and cons a few paragraphs behind this point.  Where are we now? You already know you will need:
Now, you just need to wait for the next part of this post. Among other things, in the next part you will know what additional software you have to install on your computer in order to have your TV set sharing the nice music and naughty movies you’re legally storing there. Meanwhile, may the gods be with you…
That’s true, Roaming, free the image lives here now! I guess this turns this weblog into a very much completed blog where word, sound and image live together under the most perfect harmony. To watch the photos just go to Photography » Gallery and leaves there some comments. Meanwhile, have a look at a sample down here: As usually, this photoblog, as much as the wordblog, is open to free minds and spirits. May the gods be with all photographers all around the world… Starting today, the very much appreciated internet radio given by the name of net Radio Porto or, short version, nRP, no longer has its own website. If you’re looking for the great music you were used to hear on nRP, be my guest and look around here the player which will assure you listening hours of music from heaven… The Internet radio most probably will be off while its website is being transferred and some maintenance on its server is running as well. It will be back, as usually… At the same time, this weblog is being revamped to become more suitable to integration of nRP and, later on, to integration of “Roaming, free the image” as well. Centralized control is very often the best solution and patience for web design is no longer what it used to be. So help me the gods… Portugal, during its state of world garbage and while struggling to recover the respect from the financial world, is now in the middle of an interesting “religious vs. political” argument aiming the increase of the working time of Portuguese people. Said by simple words: a while after frau Angela Merkel has said that Portuguese talk too much and work too less, the time of cutting off national holidays has come. Let us start with the actual situation, meaning, the list of all actual national holidays:
Before I start my light analysis of this political, social and religious matter, it has to be said that the table above only contains the NATIONAL holidays which means that were not included:
Let us now give CONs some space:
Time for PROs:
Today is the day we should use to remember and celebrate the brave act of our ancestors who have kicked our neighbors off Portugal, in 1640, after Spaniards have dominated us since 1580 (Portuguese Restoration War). Who the hell, in this country still remembers this? Very few. Unfortunately, majority of our population doesn’t know the name and the reason for the holidays we have. If they do, they don’t use those days off to celebrate the event which originated that holiday. They just use those days to be… off! No anger then should be expected from the extermination of a major part of actual public/national holidays. Moral of this story? This story it’s quite immoral… Although not being very keen on fado, which together with the fact of writing this blog in English instead of Portuguese might make people ask if I really am Portuguese, I must not let this date, November 27th, 2011, pass through without recognizing the value of this boring Portuguese song, as the mentioned song was today declared by UNESCO as a World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Wow… Impressive! Who would guess it? Not me… As a matter of fact, I live since I know myself with that depressive feeling about Portuguese people which makes me, since ever, labeling ourselves as one of the most sad, nostalgic and tears producers in the world. My impression about fado was already given in one of the pages included in this blog (read it here). I will not repeat myself. Not necessary, I should say, because this UNESCO’s decision did not change anything of what I think about this matter. What it really makes me happy is the fact of those who have struggled since months, maybe years, to throw fado to the very top of the world, must be considered… winners! I love when someone plays hard to win and wins. There is no doubt, fado has conquered a relevant place in the world cultural context and there is nothing we can do to deny facts. To the fado singers, musicians, composers and writers, a huge “congratulations, boys and girls” from a humble Portuguese citizen not fond of dooms, faith or over-nostalgic attitudes. May the gods be with you…
Em Português
— É meu e vosso este fado destino que nos amarra por mais que seja negado às cordas de uma guitarra. Sempre que se ouve um gemido Ó gente da minha terra E pareceria ternura Ó gente da minha terra.
In English
— Is both mine and yours this fado destiny that tides us (together) no matter how much it is denied by the strings of a guitar. Whenever one hears a lament Oh people of my land And it would seem tenderness Oh people of my land.
by Claudia Madur
Gente Da Minha Terra, in Porto Sentido, © 2009 Free translation to English by Lissber |
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