2012-01-31

Tweets of the month

28 Jan
Rejoice! Rejoice! 2 papers accepted in the same 24 hours!! :) Thanks Jo and N'Angels, I wouldn't have made it without your help...

26 Jan
Just hired a Scrum master to help me achieve my thesis vision. She starts tomorrow morning!

23 Jan
Web collaboration to replace the traditional scientific process? http://t.co/tX2m0QRF

23 Jan
Nice web tool to print or produce clean looking documents: printfriendly.com. Especially like the 'click to delete this' on the preview

18 Jan O'Reilly Media @OReillyMedia
RT @octavianasr: why #SOPA is dangerous : ██████ ███ █████ ██████ because ███████ #internet ███ #censorship is █████ ███████ ████ ████...

17 Jan Consortia Personnel @consortiatweets
HTML5 reference poster, your ultimate resource: bit.ly/yMzj1h #HTML5

11 Jan
http://t.co/MKshqNkl

11 Jan
Go Buggy go Buggy go!

1 Jan
Happy New Year! Just created this new twitter account.

1 Jan
Moved to a more mnemonic Twitter account: twitter.com/MiguelLPardal See you there!

1 Jan
Happy new year!

2012-01-26

How to bookmark all open tabs in Firefox

Press Ctrl+Shift+D or go to Bookmarks and select "Bookmark all Tabs". This will save all the open tabs into one folder and you can resume surfing the next day by select "Open All in Tabs" from the bookmark folder.

Bonus Tip: Name this folder something like "Feb25" or "022508" so it becomes easy for you to guess the date from the folder name itself.

Source: http://www.labnol.org/software/browsers/save-all-open-websites-firefox-tabs-sessions-quit/2382/

2012-01-21

Convert Bluray to DVD

Bluray discs are becoming the norm for digital video, leaving DVD behind. But there are still many occasions where only a DVD player is available. One solution is to buy both the BD and DVD versions of a movie, and there are bundles that sell both versions at discount pricing.

However, if you want to convert an existing Blu-ray disc, you will need special software:
- AnyDVD HD - required to bypass the Bluray protections, and to "rip" the movie to a disc image. Works very well.
- DVDFab Bluray to DVD - a good option to make the conversion. It allows you to select the main title to convert, along with the audio and subtitles to keep.
- VSO Bluray to DVD - similar to the previous. Trial version converts only the first 10 minutes, so that makes me recommend DVDFab instead.

The end solution works but has some drawbacks:
- Relatively long conversion times: ~1 hour for ripping, ~1 hour for converting, ~1/2 hour for burning
- Subtitles fonts become pixelated.
- Price tag: ~ EUR 100.

2012-01-15

Essential Disc Tools

To avoid burning some discs - CDs, DVDs, Blurays, ... - it is always handy to use disc images. There are several file formats for disc images but the most widely used is the ISO image format.

There are two essential - and free - disc image tools that I recommend:
- WinCDEmu - mounts disc images to any free drive letter
- ImgBurn - creates ISO files from disc directories and burns image files to discs

2012-01-09

Quality portuguese products: OFA Faucets

This is a new series of posts dedicated to quality products, made in Portugal.
For this first post, I picked OFA faucets. Simple and elegant, a great choice for bathrooms and kitchen.


More information at the company's website: http://www.ofa.pt/

2012-01-06

Writing research papers

Here is a rule of thumb:

The first draft of a scientific paper, including main results, should be written at least 1 month before the submission deadline. This is how long it will take to make the paper just right!