Miel de Maple

Yesterday, and for just an instant, I felt like the happiest man on Earth. No fancy triggers or spectacular experiences: I was just having lunch.

I then wondered if every man is once in a lifetime “the happiest man on Earth”, even if it’s only for a mili-second. Odds are 1 to billions so I guess not. Despite the stats, I believe that the feeling can be easily and repeatedly experienced if you slow down for a second and focus on the joy and pleasure small things can bring.

A slip of Coke, a gold-lighted afternoon, free ice-cream or a slow kiss can be just enough to make you feel the happiest man (or girl) on Earth.

I’m an engineering student because I believe engineering is the crisscrossing between design and science, and maybe because, when as a child, I assembled too much LEGO bricks.

Just a few weeks ago I discovered a box in my closet with all the building blocks of my childhood. My  allergic rhinitis keeps a Kleenex box in my room that looks hideous, so one morning I decided to look for the intersection between Kleenex and LEGO bricks. It resulted in a fancy LEGO Kleenex Box!

Highly recommended!

Just found that UK-based Jammy Toast Podcast, in their Episode 18, featured a song of my friend Rubinskee (Iván Riestra) along with a song of my last release (Living Undercover).

The podcast really worths a look at. It makes an amazing selection electronic music published under creative-commons licenses and other copyright-safe agreements.

Cheers to Pete, the hilarious host of this wonderful podcast!

Now everybody is worried about being ‘eco-friendy’, ‘organic’, ’sustainable’ or, at least, ’energy efficient ‘. “Organic cotton fabrics” in jeans  and coffee packaged in recycled paper remind me two things: that Earth might be threatening our survival after a few hundred years of thoughtless living and more importantly, that ‘green-friendly’ stuff can produce broader margins of added value.

You can be ‘hip’ and green by drinking Starbuck’s coffee, driving an hybrid car or applying yourself all-organic and natural make-up which is expensive. But you can still be green without spending and help improve the quality of life of a bunch of people that doesn’t exist yet.

These are 4 small things I’ve done:

• Use public transportation instead of driving: use the extra time to read, think or meet your life’s love.
• Turn off  lights or electronic devices you are not using. Even better if you unplug them!
• Print on both sides of paper. Extra points for printing two pages per sheet.
• Plant a tree or take care of a plant. Besides, a plant in your house can add a nice touch to it.

Anyway, do whatever you feel to. With us or without, Earth is still gonna spin for a while.

It was the calm Sunday night of a thrilling weekend when my best friend said: we can have italian or we can meet these place called Ihop, US-like stuff.

I was really hungry so I told him: ‘Ihop’. Also the best answer to the question: where you should have dinner in order to feel a bothersome fullness, uncomfortable  enought to keep you awake until 4am?

We had a giant hamburger and enough fries and Coca-Cola to supply the daily caloric intake of four sailors.

I didn’t mind until bedtime when I started  feeling  a half-soul / half-physical discomfort.  I then remembered Thomas Hobbes saying:

“…cold doth in the same manner generate fear in those that sleep, and causeth them to dream of ghosts, and to have phantasms of horror and danger.”

My advice? Believe English philosophers  and your parents when they say you will have a  ’disturbed repose’ if you eat tons of food before bedtime.

Not so long ago, in a moment of distress, someone told me: ‘Don’t Give Up’. Like in so many movies, songs or self-improvement books, but it didn’t sound like bullshit then. I cooked for her one afternoon, because those words were helpful and because I sometimes forgot about them.

The phrase doesn’t look like  such a big deal, but this Friday remembered me it can make a difference. After all, success is more about hard work than sole virtuosity and more about taking action rather than just thinking.

Don’t let a big or long challenge knock you out. Never disqualify yourself. Don’t expect you will fail.

You can eat an elephant, one bite at a time. So Debug, Re-Execute and Never Give Up.

I’ll stop now before this start sounding too much like self-help literature and I feel nauseated.

Time for another interview! This time, with the genius-developer of one of my favorite software applications. A Palm application that, in resume, lets you make music with your sole device: Bhajis Loops. Bhajis Loops is marketed by Chocopoolp, a french brand depicted by a chocolate-eating pink pet octopus and founded by entrepreneur and Ph. D., Olivier Gillet (OG).

Olivier, as well as being an artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and signal-image processing whiz-kid, is an expressive photographer and music lover.

He introduce me to Paris for the first time, now let me introduce him with an interview about technology, ingenuity and music.

hZ: Does music loves technology? Or it’s technology that loves music? What do you think of their affair?
OG: I would say that there are two types of technology… There’s one kind of technology that music loves, it’s the inspired, aesthetic technology that makes beautiful instruments… I often have this lame discussion when people tell me that electronic music is not music because it’s not made with “real instruments” – yes there are still people around there who put forward such arguments. When I ask for a definition of “real instruments”, people tell me that they are not ”bits of technology”, and I reply that the piano, the cello, or later the saxophone were, in their time, technical innovations – frankenstein monsters — that took some time to be accepted as respectable instruments, and that they are “technology” the same way a synth is. There’s as much research, design, innovation in making a piano as there is in making a synth, and piano manufacturers would be indeed sad to know that people don’t view their creations as fine pieces of technology. I don’t see why very classic instruments, like the Prophet 5 or the Minimoog or the Jupiter 8 couldn’t be considered as authentic instruments. Music needs instruments, and the engineering, technology that goes into them. In french we have this word, “lutherie”, the art/craft of making instruments. Music needs lutherie, be it of cellos or Prophet-5s…

But there’s another side of technology… The technology as an ugly geek running after music, trying to seduce her with bling-bling. The technology that produces 40-items long menus in DAWs, VSTi reproducing the front panel of a synth in a pixel-accurate way, Autotune or the sonic Botox of an endless chain of mastering plug-ins. Music might have one-night stands with those guys, but it’s a short term story, a dead end. I think in a couple of years, we’ll all be laughing about all this technology, the same way we smile when looking back at an FM synth or bad virtual analog synths.

hZ: Coca-Cola? Wine? Champagne? What’s the ultimate beverage?
OG: I’m a teetotaler, so Coke. Plus, I have a low tolerance for caffeine - coffee gives me horrible migraines, so Coke provides me with the right amount of energy, an ok-ish caffeine dose and sugarrrrr to get me back on track in the morning. And I love looking lame and cheap instead of the “sophisticated french wine-taster” people happen to assume I am :)

hZ: Imagine the future of data indexation. What’s in it for the average citizen?
OG: If by “data indexation” you mean the kind of content analysis, information retrieval stuff that Google has become a champion of, I would say that the trend is in expanding the field of what we considered as “data” worth indexing. Documents, books, images, videos - it’s pretty natural to think of them as data… and we already index all of those. We do not do it well – you can’t search occurrences of faces or words in youtube videos the same way you can spot occurrences of words in web documents. This is going to be improved, but I don’t think those improvements will be life-changing… From where will the real innovation come from? The state of the physical world is data, too. Somehow, Streetview is an example of this generalization of the concept of data – and I suspect some of the heuristics used in deciding which website to crawl, at which frequency, could as well decide where and how often the black Opel Astras are sent… So the next logical step would be to map the buildings, the vegetation, what’s available in this store, the menus in restaurant, and to make all of this seamlessly searchable. The idea of creating a digital replica of the world is fascinating and we are going towards it, but SF and VR gurus were wrong: the purpose of such of a replica will not be to make people live in it. The purpose will be to make the reality searchable and data-minable.

Another frontier is your personal life, your memories… I can already answer the questions “what was the last song I Iistened to before I defending my PhD?”, or “what was I doing the day Obama was elected” by having a look at Last.fm or Google Calendar ; in a couple of years I will look with nostalgia at my friendfeed posts from 2008 (if they are still available). A digital copy of my life is out there, and the trend is accelerating. I don’t use Facebook but people who do are digitizing a great deal of information about their lives. There’s enough HD space on my desk to record non-stop 1 year of my life on video. It’s not unreasonable to predict that within a decade we’ll have the technology to create a complete digital archive of our lives and activities, and that people will be excited about doing it. We will deal differently with nostalgia (maybe realize that like most weddings, some of our precious memories look cheap and ugly on video).

This also means no more arguments with your wife about what you allegedly said that day. Domestic rows with action replay. I’m surprised there is no hollywood movie about it yet – or maybe I missed it…

hZ: Is there an everyday technology that keeps surprising you always?
OG: Since I am very curious about how stuff works and have always tried to recreate/emulate the technology that fascinates me — to learn how it works — this feeling of surprise often rapidly wears off. Sadly, I don’t remember any lasting “wow” I had recently regarding a piece of technology.

Still, I sometimes wonder what would happen if, following a massive catastrophe, all our existing technology, computers would be destroyed… We would have to rebuild everything from scratch, but
how? Even if we assume that all the blueprints and knowledge is preserved, how to “boostrap” this technological reconstruction? And whenever I think about this I realize to which extent computers / technology are “self-leveraging”. We have great computers because we had – a generation before – great computers to design the chips, simulate the circuits, develop OSes, develop very advanced machines for manufacturing and quality control. You cannot build modern technology without already having slightly inferior technology to design and fabricate it. So I am really amazed by all this – the fact that today’s everyday technologies could not be recreated directly, the fact that we would have to go through all the previous iterations. We are really standing on the shoulders of giants…giants standing on a 4004.

Otherwise, I have always been impressed by buildings, bridges, freeway interchanges. I have no absolutely no idea about how these things are designed, built, and how they stand. They always look to me more complex and mysterious than the most complex software projects – even BigTable.

hZ: “Think outside the box”. How do you do that? What hints would you give to the IT novice?
OG: You don’t really have to think outside of the box if you never allow yourself to stay in a box :) Don’t get used to things, don’t repeat yourself, always try to learn new languages/platforms, try to implement solutions you would have rejected just to learn more about them. Whenever you start a project, always ask yourself whether this is something you really want, or whether you do it just to follow the trend or to make easy money.

hZ:   Was there a special moment in your life that let you knew you were ‘made’ for computers? What else would you liked to do for life?
OG: I don’t remember any particular ‘aha!’ moment. It’s easier to remember moments when I really hated computers and wondered why the only tools to play with data, symbolic reasoning, or to organize abstract ideas were those horrible machines. I use computers because they are the best tools for doing what I am good at, but I don’t really like them the way they are. You ugly machines complaining about missing dependencies, I hate you!

There are two things I would have really loved doing: directing films (as it is a mix of many things I like – writing, photography, designing/organizing stuff, and I love film in general); and designing buildings.

hZ: Five places of Paris that make you remember a song, what do they make you feel or remember?
OG:

• The platform of the CDG airport RER station
  Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress.
  I was listening to the album the day my girlfriend arrived for the first time in France. This was a moment I had been waiting for, for a long time. I was feeling all mushy and teenagy and awkward, just like B&S’ music.
• Rue des Poissonniers
  Micachu – Golden Phone.
  That day I was walking and taking photos in the area, stumbled accross this song I had just downloaded from a music blog and never checked before… and was immediately hooked! It made me super jumpy, like when mario finds a Starman. I played it in loop almost 15 times while walking the street up and down. The photos were not good.
• Rue d’Alésia
  The Modern Lovers – Walk up the Street.
  I had recently moved to a new apartment and everything went wrong – real horror story. For a couple of days I had no place to stay and spent most of the day walking in the streets. This song says it all.
• Boulevard Ney & Boulevard McDonald
  Movietone – Star Ruby.
  I remember that during my PhD I was sometimes leaving the lab for 3 or 4hr, during long computations or because I needed time to distance myself from a problem. I usually went walking in random parts of the city, which brought me one cold and grey winter day to this crappy boulevard with parking lots, warehouses, junk yards. The whole album ”The blossom filled streets” by Movietone still made it look beautiful, in a strange, eerie way.
• Boulevard Suchet
  Pavement – Shady Lane.
  Another long walk – I started in Porte de Saint-Cloud and wanted to walk until I found the solution to a problem… This song popped out of nowhere (well, out of the “shuffle” mode of my ipod) and it was suddenly the only thing I ever wanted to hear at that precise moment. The lyrics didn’t make much sense but at that moment I instantly loved it and didn’t want to hear anything else.

We were 5 or 6 six years old when my best friend, Manuel, had a liking for Froot Loops with Sprite. I mean he poured Sprite in a glass and then, poured Froot Loops into that same glass.

He used to enjoy his snack every time we watched TV or played Nintendo, and everyone believed it was repulsive (as indeed it was).

Now imagine for a moment it didn’t result in something nauseating. Human history is full of serendipitous mixes and happenings that resulted in first-class dishes, scientific breakthroughs or at least, merry stories.

Take mexican “Mole Poblano” for example, an homogenous paste-like composition of chocolate, chili and up to one hundred ingredients. The legend says no one thought it would work and it’s now one of  the most representative dishes of mexican cuisine and one of the most exquisite.

Same thing happened to me with whisky and apple juice on a dark night: I accidentally poured apple juice in my glass and discovered one of my favorite mixes (I know any whisky-geek out there will see it as an obscenity, I don’t give a shit).

…And the list goes on, including but not limited to: Penicillin, the non-newtonian fluid better known as Silly Putty, plastic explosives, wonderful performance improvisations and chocolate chips cookies (miam! miam!).

Unpredictable happy endings and unexpected success are around the corner. See it for yourself the next time you visit a Burger King, mix all the available sodas and discover the ultimate elixir of youth. Just recall “Chance favors the prepared mind” as Pasteur allegedly said.

Something funny happened today: GPS data and location protocols of iPhone’s framework made me revive a love story that worths sharing.

All started today, while I was handling GPS positions and tying them with my new iPhone app. During one of the tests, I started Google Maps application and remembered it’s also capable of displaying 360º photographs of the streets. It’s a Google’s project called Street View.

Procrastination then took me to latitude 43.604363, longitude 1.442951 which happens to be the location of a southern-France city where I made a residence with my first photography teacher.

I spend a virtual tour across some of the streets I remembered, because it’s a city that keeps a lot of valuable experiences for me. I then landed on Avenue Tolosane, the very same place where one of my favorite songs, “Coke, Cigarettes and You” was inspired.

The story happened during summer. I was on that street because I had a date with a girl I really loved. I was going to meet her at a bus stop, but arrived a little earlier. In fact, I didn’t arrived by bus, I actually arrived after walking about 5 or 6 kilometers because my camera’s watch failed and started the journey extra-early (it was 2 or 3 hours forward).

Even after the long walk I was still early, so I went to a bar in the same street to kill some time. I ordered a Coca-Cola (you know how much I love it) and took seat at the bar’s terrace. My cigarettes just were over when I saw her walking down the street (like in that 1964 Orbison’s hit).

We spent a wonderful day and near the end got slept, then waked up at twilight. Just in time for me to catch the bus to the train station, I was leaving the city that same night. We walked to the bus stop (you guessed, over Avenue Tolosane) and waited for the last bus. It was starting to get dark and cold. We hug, I hold her tight and said goodbye. We knew there were good chances we would not see each other again.

After my arrival to Mexico City, I recorded a song during the following weeks, a love song about that day. It has no lyrics but it says something like:

In a place that is new and strange to me, I’ve found someone who makes it familiar.
Someone who doesn’t speak my language but I know how to make smile.
Someone that can tell me with her eyes she really liked that kiss.
Someone I would say: when I’m with you I don’t need anything else…
No wait, we both know that’s a lie, better say:
When I’m with you, I just need Coke, cigarettes, and you…

You can listen the track directly here, in last.fm

weee!

If you are one of the lucky ones to live in Mexico City and own an iPhone or iPod touch, your fantastic voyages accross subway, rapid bus system (MetroBus) and other rail-based systems are about to be mathematically optimal.

I decided to employ this summer vacations on the development of my first commercial application. I thought on something I really needed in my everyday and  ended designing an optimal route calculator for the main public transportation systems in Mexico City. I called it Ubicate!  which translates as ‘locate yourself’ and which is a phrase grown-ups love shouting at youngsters when they misbehave.

In brief, you input a start station, your destination and my software tells you the precise instructions to arrive shortly (or comfortably if there are too many line exchanges), dry and safe .

I’ve got some future plans for the software, first of all, international localization, some integration with the phone’s GPS system, etc…

You can visit the mini-site (Spanish) or even better, download it from the App Store!
Remember your purchase helps a young software-engineering student pay for his college expenses and vices: fancy restaurants, stripped Adidas sneakers in every possible color, luxury traveling, … Just kidding!!

If you liked the application’s logo, you should know it’s the work of a very talented designer and wonderful collaborator, Ulises Arvizu.

PS: I’m looking for a young developer to work with. Contact me if you feel interested. iPhone SDK experience strongly suggested)