My First MSP Experience
Here I am again, this time writing about my first experience as a Microsoft Student Partner, or at least as an MSP-to-be 
.
This wasn't exactly planned, instead it was Rodrigo's idea to invite me to come along. Rodrigo is the current MSP at ESTG Leiria and for the next year, I will be "taking his place", hence the invitation with the purpose of getting me into the spirit of the thing.
The plan was to visit a children nursing house in Leiria. Basically it's a house where children are sent to when they either have lost their parents or when their parents simply can't support them in a good environment. So we were to visit the said house and offer them a brand new XBOX with 2 games. We did so and everyone was happy, we were happy for having done the good deed of the day, the kids were happy because they had been given a new toy.
After some conversation regarding some basic courses we will also be providing the children with, we all came back home. Not much was settled regarding these courses, since the holidays are ending and the whole school fuss is starting to spin again, so there aren't many certainties regarding schedules yet, but this will be the plan for the upcoming months: arrange for the children to be taught basic notions on Windows and Word.
I'll keep the news coming as I have them.
I'm also posting a password-protected post with the pictures from this event, just to make sure that only allowed people get to see them, as I'm not the only one in them. 
The Birthday Gift
This post comes more on the personal edge. Actually, it's more like me showing off something and being damn proud of it 
but hey, I am of the opinion that an image is worth for a thousand words, so here go two thousand words for you to read! On a little background note, this was my best friend's birthday gift .
So with this said, thank you very much Katy and let's get on with the images, shall we? 
- Wristwatch Front
- Customized Back
NASA found life out there!
No, not really. It is actually just an earthling virus that made it to outer space, and it isn't even a real living virus, it's a computer virus.
Disappointed? Don't be. It is still pretty cool how something like this can happen. According to BBC News the virus made it to the International Space Station through laptops used by astronauts. Luckily these laptops aren't mission-critical and apparently there is no permanent Internet link on the ISS, and all data exchanged with Earth is actually scanned first. Disappointed even further? Seriously, don't be. Someone was dumb enough to get their USB pen drives infected with viruses and further on to use them on orbit, without having checked it for virus or anything.
Looks like NASA should include a few basic computer security classes on their astronaut training...
Stargate Atlantis comes to an end…
Those of you who know me well, know that I am an avid fan of everything that is Stargate related. Yes, I watched the whole 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1 and I have followed every single episode of Stargate Atlantis so far. It is simply a show I cannot get enough of.
Still, the tv network SciFi seems to be determined in upsetting me and all the Stargate fans out there. First they pulled the plug on SG-1 and now, they decide to do the same on Atlantis' , as soon as its fifth season ends. What are the true space fans supposed to watch now?! Battlestar Galactica? I'm sorry, but I'm a little over sneaky women in red dresses, and the whole worthless drama surrounding that tv series which was so promising to start with.
Well, not all hope is lost though... Apparently a new Stargate series is on the making, this one of its name Stargate Universe. According to tv.com this new series will be about a «a group of explorers board an abandoned, Ancients-built starship called The Destiny» *raise eyebrow*. I was a little bit excited at the prospect of a new Stargate series since I had known about it for a while, but what I did not expect was the sudden decision of shutting down Atlantis - now, with this information regarding Universe, my skepticism is through the roof. A Stargate series without travelling through Stargates? Err... is it me or something does not match?
Unless of course, The Destiny is small enough to fit into the Stargate, but then it is most likely a puddle-jumper, and that would be utterly boring. Maybe I'm being too harsh but I think that SciFi is inevitably killing the original spirit of the Stargate. Give us something new, but not that new...
On the streak of good news reasonable news is the fact that the Stargate fans will also have the MMORPG game coming out relatively soon. Once again however, the game isn't overly based on the tv show and whilst I am excited to try it out, I'm also taking it with a grain of salt.
According to an interview carried out by GameSpot, it seems that Stargate Worlds will actually be some sort of World of Stargate.
This means we can't keep retelling the story of SG-1. We're going to let players choose from seven archetypes--Jaffa, Goa'uld, Asgard, and human soldier, scientist, archeologist, and commando--when they create a character.
Ah well, thank you SciFi for killing my inner-child 
Chococlock
Well, okay this is a very weird and useless gadget but if your girlfriend is suffering from anorexia and you have no clue what to give her on her birthday, here's the ideal gift!
So what is it actually? It's basically a "cuckoo-clock" that will release a chocolate every hour. Truth to be told, it is kind of dodgy that there is only a pink version of it. However, it is also the kind of gadget that simply does not work for people like me, since it actually has a button that allows you to cheat.
I wonder if there would be any chocolate left to dispense as soon as the hour mark came...
You can buy it here for the friendly price of $37 USD.
[Gizmodo]
Microsoft Student Partner – The Outcome
Well, I could not have better news today: I was accepted into Microsoft's Student Partner Program! Out of the initial 30 students who had been called for an interview in Lisbon, 20 of us got picked and I am amongst those 20.
The thrill starts right away in September, month on which we were asked to not make any plans for either the first nor the last weekend. I'm still a little bit on the dark, regarding what's happening and where but we were promised more news soon, so I can but to wait to hear more from the people in charge. I'll post here when I know more.
AMD acts, Intel reacts: Atom Dual-Core
So on my last blog post I mentioned how AMD isn't sleeping, and how it had released a low-power version of their Athlon64 CPU, the 2000+ to go head-to-head with Intel's Atom processor. Well as it turns out, Intel certainly hadn't given its last word on the subject.
Perhaps in the light of AMD's move on the low-end market, Intel decided that the release of the dual-core version of the Atom processor, the Atom 330, will occur sooner than expected.
Our sources tell us that this chip will run at the frequency of 1.6Ghz and it will have a total L2 cache of 1Mb (512Kb per core) and it will run on the same 533Mhz bus as its single-core counterpart (N270). It is expected that the Atom 330 will be significantly faster than the Atom 230 which was trampled by Via's Nano according to a review by Ars Technica.
It is also worth mentioning that both cores on Atom 330 will have the HyperThreading technology and as a result, the operating system will have 4 virtual cores at its disposal. It needs to be noted that this HT technology was dropped in the Core platform and it's now being brought back to life on both the Atom and Nehalem architectures. Rumour went that this technology was dropped because it was ineffective and in some cases it would even draw more power than a dual-CPU solution, so we can only hope that Intel knows what they are doing.
AMD is dead? Think again…
So you thought AMD was dead? Well that is not what this review by Tom's Hardware shows us. It is true that the Core 2 platform has smashed the competition from AMD on pretty much every front of the market, but this tide might be about to turn.
With the recent outbreak of netbook computers like the Asus Eee PC, it leaves us to wonder where the big bucks might be coming from in the near future. Perhaps with this in mind, AMD downclocked and undervolted its Athlon64 segment to start headbutting with Intel's Atom architecture. Truth to be told, they apparently succeeded on creating a platform that outperforms Atom on efficiency, where as by efficiency we understand processing capacity over power consumed. Actually, the Athlon64 2000+ runs at lower a frequency than Intel's counterpart, but as we have seen in the past, when it comes to getting the most out of the same frequency, AMD is on top due to their more efficient architecture. This said, not only the A64 runs at a lower frequency, but it also does outperform Intel's Atom CPU.
Personally, on a time where the dillema is what Intel CPU to choose rather than to choose between Intel and AMD, and being on a stalemate because of it, I think this is nothing but good news. Not only for AMD themselves but for the market in general, because we all know what happens when companies monopolize markets, right?
iPosture: the ultimate solution for your back
This discreet little gadget promises to straighten up your back from that weird slouching position that we all unconsciously acquire at some point. Be it because you spend too much time sitting or because you are a more direct relative to the apes, you will notice that your back is slightly curved at times. This is usually accompanied by your shoulders dropping down and pointing forward.
Here is what iPosture does to prevent this: as soon as you deviate from the ideal standing angle by just three degrees, it will vibrate until you correct your position or well... until it gets its own pair of wings and flies straight towards the wall, even if this means of turning it off is heavily unadvised considering its prohibitive price of $99.95 (USD).
Here's more on the device.
[Engadget]