Scientology = Cult?

According to this screenshot from Valleywag, Google thinks so.

If you do a search for Scientology now, it no longer shows up the Wikipedia page for "cult." Maybe they changed their mind. ;)

Dramatic Chipmunk and Dramatic Lemur

This will only take five seconds of your time... I promise. I leave you with the dramatic chipmunk:


And if you want more, enjoy the dramatic lemur:

Rambo: The Spill Movie Review

Find more videos like this on The Spill.com Movie Community

I just found today about this AMAZING Movie Reviewing network on Ning.com.

Great-looking Color Palettes In No Time

Have you ever wondered how to come up with a slick-looking color palette for your site? Maybe there's some constraints that you gotta operate under, but you can still play with some elements... yet there's so much room for screwing up and coming up with a very ugly-looking combination that screams for forgiveness.

Fear not! There is kuler from Adobe Labs, to help you non-designers (and even designers in a rush) to come up with great-looking color palettes to help you out of a color "hole".

And if you are a Mac user, you can also get the kuler dashboard widget on your desktop.

All About Ning: The ZDNet Interview

Check out this great interview with Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, with ZDNet Editor in Chief Dan Farber and Rafe Needleman, from WebWare.com. She explains in a very easy-to-follow way how the service works and how it's different from Facebook, MySpace and others.

The interviewers then move on to discuss their thoughts about the platform, concluding:

"Ning is a very strong social network platform, and the platform business, in this market, is the place to be. We have enough companies trying to rope people into engineered communities. Ning doesn't do that; it lets its users build their own neighborhoods in the ways they want."

What do I think about Ning? Just look at what it's enabled us to accomplish in TuDiabetes.com, the world's biggest social network for people touched by diabetes and judge for yourself.

The Future According to Radiohead

Once more Radiohead takes the cover of Rolling Stone magazine... this time, thanks to their chart-topping "In Rainbows".

As if the fact that the album itself is a masterpiece were not enough, they have invented the future of music in the process of putting it out.

They released it for download back in October 2007, allowing fans to pay as little or as much for it as they saw fit. The actual "physical" album (iTunes release, as well) saw the light of day the first day of 2008, topping the charts to the surprise of many.

I wonder what does the RIAA has to say about this? ;)

Start Spreading the News...

View of New York from my Hotel
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez

I went to NYC for a brief business trip and loved it. The city has something so special to it! I stayed in the heart of the theater district and too a nice (chilly) stroll after I checked in, to go have dinner. Ate at a place called "Landmarc" where I could enjoy a nice wine with a great Caesar Salad while I finished reading "Rules For Revolutionaries".

On the way back to the hotel, listening to Billy Joel while walking through Times Square definitely put me in a "New York State of Mind".

Here are some more photos, in case you want to check them out.

Not-so-high Speed Internet

Getting on a (slow) chat with Comcast to see what is up... or down. :(

El Pana Guillermo

Guillermo y Manny
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez

Guillermo y yo nos conocimos en la universidad, en Caracas. Nos graduamos al mismo tiempo, el en Ing. Civil y yo en Ing. Electrica, y no nos veiamos hacia siglos... hasta nuestra visita a San Francisco a fines del 2007. El tiempo no habia pasado, practicamente (aunque yo tenia claramente menos pelo!) -nos encontramos y hablamos pajita igual que lo haciamos en los laboratorios de quimica el segundo semestre! :)

El fin de semana pasado nos encontramos en San Francisco para compartir un dia familiar. Aqui nos ven en el parque, con Guillermo a cargo del gran Paquito, su chamo.

Ha sido genial reencontrarnos, mi pana!! Aqui hay mas fotos del fin de semana pasado.

iJam

Me recuerda otro producto... no logro ubicar cual...

P.S. Gracias a Gilberto por el lead.

Horton Coming Up!!!

I can't believe how excited I am. I barely read "Horton Hears a Who!" a few months ago for the first time, but I am SO happy there is going to be a Horton movie in March.

Horton's going to be voiced by Jim Carrey and the major, by Steve Carrell.

Check out the trailers.

Can Amazon MP3 Kick iTunes' Musical Butt?

If Amazon is going to offer good quality MP3s for less, I sure hope they take over this space. I've long been a fan of Amazon (though I admit my respect for all things Apple has evolved in the course of the past couple of years).

But I am not in love of the idea of paying more for something when I can (legally) get it for less. The case in question: I had a gift cert to put to use in Amazon and I decided to give their MP3 store a shot to download an album I'd long wanted to get: The Wizard of Oz. I found it one dollar cheaper in Amazon MP3 than in iTunes. ;)

How Do You Find a Doctor... You Like

A friend I know through TuDiabetes let me know about Vitals.com a while back. I gave it a shot and now I am regretting I didn't remember about it when I was looking for a new endocrinologist after our move to Palo Alto.

I did a search yesterday and within 5 miles of my job I found 30-some doctors that met my criteria!

Hope this helps you the next time you are looking for a specialist.

And The Car Is On Its Way...

Some of you know by now that the SwapALease.com idea wasn't a good one, at least not for our specific situation (or perhaps the fact that the word "swap" is in their business name doesn't help people imagine that they would actually be in for a new lease, not a lease transfer...)

Anyway, the point is today the car was picked up in Orlando, so in the coming week or so it should be making its appearance in Palo Alto! I wish it had been picked up by one of those transports like Mack, from the movie Cars.

The Matrix will be riding in "style" in a truck from the company ProStar Automotive Transport: they were the most reliable company I could find while researching.

Salvavinilos: Tu Musica en Mas de 5 Sabores

El pana Gilberto me paso este link hoy: un blog para los que sienten nostalgia por la musica de los ochentas en Venezuela, de vez en cuando.

Se llama SalvaVinilos.com y es un blog de esos impelables para los que pasamos los diez años de edad temprano en la década de los ochenta.

Enjoy...

Make a Network with Ning

A very good and easy to follow tutorial by Unwired on how to make a network with Ning:

Click To Play

Hammock Releases New Album in March

As some of you know, Hammock is one of my favorite bands. They are releasing a new album in March and I am very excited about the news.

To celebrate, here's a little video from the song "When the Sky Pours Down Like A Fountain", found in their previous album, so you may know what to expect:

Who Are You Supporting?

I am honestly curious.

In the past year or so, a little over 7 thousand people have visited this blog AND returned to it (close to 30K others have come ones and never come back... which is not too great of a statistic, I admit).

So I am curious as to who are you supporting? This Presidential Campaign in the US is crazy tight and it keeps getting more and more interesting by the day with primaries confirming about 3 people on each side who could snag the nomination for their party.

The question is, if you are comfortable sharing this: who are you supporting? Who would you rather see as the next President of the United States?

As the days pass, I am leaning more and more towards Obama. What about you?

Seashore: Free Photoshop Light

More like a light version of GIMP, the open source image editing suite, Seashore comes in handy for quick-and-dirty image manipulation jobs, like resizing and minor touch-ups.

Love it: it is the little handy tool of the day.

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot

This funny parody of 24 may show others how old you REALLY are... Enjoy!

Notas del Hospital...

Han pasado 3 años y un dia desde que tome estas notas en mi telefono en el hospital, cuando faltaban pocas horas para que nos dejara.

Decidi compartirlas hoy para sacarlas del baul virtual en que las meti desde entonces...

----
15 de Enero: Papa desmejoro. Se altera mucho y se rasca mucho todo el tiempo. Su pulso a las 2 pm era +/- 100. Mi mama dice que lo normal en el es 60.

4:15 pm: su presion es 142/73 y su pulso es 130 [sigue subiendo].

16 de Enero: no responde mucho.
6 am: Le siguen dando decadron (esteroide), adavan (para la agustia) y metadone (narcotico?), su pulso es de 130+

7:45 am: presion, 123/62; pulso, 127 bpm

9:10 am: no responde ya, cuando le hablamos.

10:55 am: 83/57 108 bpm...
-----

Nunca termine de tomar las notas. La angustia que producia el ver los valores de pulso subir (con la edad el puso baja), imaginando que en el algun momento va tan rapido que el corazon hace "flat-line"...

Fueron dias terribles pero aun mas terribles fueron para el. Lo quisimos mucho y lo queremos y respetamos tanto mas hoy.

Hoy tuve puesta su gorra de los Red Sox con la que sale en esta foto. Te quiero y extraño mucho, viejo!

Manny On The Ning Team Page

Today I was added to the Ning Team page.

Para los venezolanos que se preguntan, la banderita que le pase a la persona a cargo de crear los iconos es esta. ;)

I am sure Dad would be proud... it's been three years since he left.

P.S. For those who have asked, here are a few pics of my workspace in the new office, starting with the super-humongous screen! :P

A Great First Day at Ning!

Today was my first day at Ning. What a great day it was! I met with many people, from Gina the CEO, to Diego the CTO, along with two meetings with my new boss Athena (Director of Advocacy) and a meeting with the complete Advocacy team.

Everyone was super-cool, confirming: behind every great product there's great people that make it what it is. Write this down: Ning is going to go very far! And I am happy to be a part of that ride.

If you may, check out the Ning Jobs page: we are growing quite a bit and are looking for more fun, smart folks!

Office for Mac: What a Difference 4 Years Make!

Four years. That is how long it took for a new Microsoft Office for Mac to arrive, but it will be a reality this coming Tuesday, coinciding with the kickoff of MacWorld 2008 in San Francisco (no, I won't be in attendance).

If you, like me, thought that MS Office for Mac 2008 sucked, make sure to pre-order your copy of the 2008 version by following the link below and you will also be contributing to make this blog a few pennies richer! :)

High Speed that is REALLY High Speed!

A while ago the technician from Comcast left, leaving us with phone and high speed set up. It's funny... it feels as if we had water turned on! :P

Now, something that impressed me quite a bit was the download speed that we now have. I will let the Speed Test screenshot speak for itself...

Anyway, we're gradually getting settled. Got a new mattress for us (getting one for Santiago today) and a new bed for him already. Our furniture should be here Sunday or Monday. By then we should have covered the rest of the things we can do locally, since I start work on Tuesday.

Safe (and Tired) in Palo Alto

We made it!!

We just picked up the key to our house and are on our way there, having finally set up utilities as our first step as new neighbors living in Palo Alto.

To say we are exhausted is an understatement: the trip alone would be enough, but tied with the process of the past few weeks, it's simply VERY extenuating! :)

We went to bed (I did -Andreina didn't sleep almost) after midnight. The van picked us three up with our six suitcases, stroller, car seat and carry-ons at 3:45 am. The plane left at 6 am EST and we arrived in San Fran shortly before 1 pm.

We could only fit in a Toyota Highlander (which is nice). We rented it for a few days, so as to be able to run a few errands to get the house set, before we go into carless mode for a while, to see how that goes with life in Palo Alto. :)

Anyway... I am going to call it a day. I am pretty tired.

Last Day at Full Sail

Last Day at Full Sail: Curriculum Development
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez

Yesterday was my last day at Full Sail. I actually didn't work much... I just finished cleaning up my office and, for the most part, enjoyed the company of the many friends I've made these past 4.5 years.

For lunch we went to Houlihan's (you can see a photo of the table here) with the the entire Curriculum Development team (except for Dan and Ed -Ed wrote to say he couldn't make it, but Dan didn't so I am going to put him on the spot). :)

For the farewell get-together, we gathered in an Irish pub in Winter Park and had a blast. You can see a slideshow with pics from the past few days here.

I got some lovely presents that I very much enjoy: a couple of bottles of Black Label, a bottle of Chardonnay (that I am enjoying as I write this), a box of protein bars and some very handy gift cards for Target, iTunes and Starbuck's.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!! I will miss you very much!

I am going to miss you guys!!

Cumpleaños de Eva García en casa de Rafa. En la foto: Rafa, Luis y Manuel
Originally uploaded by iamrafa

Los Morochos Luis y Rafa son dos de los panas que tengo hace mas tiempo. Entre mis 4 mejores amigos, solo conozco a Henkel hace mas tiempo y solo GIlberto los iguala en cuanto al cariño que siento por ellos.

Desde que llegue a los Estados Unidos en el 2000, Luis y Rafa han estado de vuelta en mi vida de una u otra forma (aun cuando nunca perdimos contacto, viviendo a distancia mientras estudiabamos aqui y luego, cuando volvi a Venezuela para trabajar en Procter & Gamble del 96 al 2000).

Desde el 2003, ambos se acercaron a nosotros de una manera que sera siempre dificil de olvidar. Todos, uno detras de otro, primero yo, luego Rafa... luego Rafa de nuevo, luego Luis, luego Luis otra vez... y luego Rafa una vez mas... llegamos a ser padres. Y estos casi cinco años desde que vivimos en la Florida, nuestros chamos han podido compartir muchos, muchos ratos juntos.

Hoy, a pocos dias de mudarnos a la costa oeste, siento un mar de esperanza e ilusion por las posibilidades que se presentan ante nosotros. Pero no dejo de sentir un nudo en la garganta por la tristeza de no verlos con tanta frecuencia. Se que nos van a hacer mucha falta y confio en que la tecnologia salga al rescate una vez mas, como tantas veces antes ha sucedido, para mantenernos en contacto de la misma forma que antes hicimos.

Entre tanto, solo me resta decirles: los quiero mucho, Morochos... Me considero con orgullo el Tercer Morocho y los siento, junto a Henkel y Gilberto, como mis hermanos.

I am going to miss you guys...

How Does Mickey Mouse Say Freezing?

Cold in Orlando
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez

Right now we're experiencing the coldest temperature I've seen in Orlando since I've moved here. It's 31F, but due to the wind chill, it feels like 22... Mickey Mouse and friends must be freezing! I know I am! :)


Here is the Freeze Warning from Weather.com: ...HARD FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM EST THURSDAY...

THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED EARLY THURSDAY MORNING WITH LOWS REACHING THE MID TO UPPER 20S. A LONG DURATION OF BELOW FREEZING TEMPERATURES IS EXPECTED...WITH TEMPERATURES REMAINING BELOW 32 DEGREES FOR UP TO 8 TO 10 HOURS...AND BELOW 28 DEGREES FOR UP TO 4 TO 6 HOURS...ESPECIALLY IN THE RURAL AREAS.

THE HARD FREEZE WARNING MEANS TEMPERATURES BELOW 28 DEGREES ARE POSSIBLE FOR SEVERAL HOURS OR GREATER. THESE CONDITIONS CAN KILL SENSITIVE VEGETATION AS WELL AS HARM EXPOSED WATER PIPES AS WELL AS SMALL ANIMALS LEFT OUTDOORS WITHOUT SHELTER.