iPhone battery vs. Tiwtter

The battery life of an iPhone which uses applications for the management of twitter accounts such as Twitterrific (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific) or TwitterFon (http://twitterfon.net/) can get exhausted much sooner as expected.
Personal experience says that the battery will allow only for about 8 to 10 hours in Stand By, in comparison with the more than 30 hours in Stand By which can be achieved on the same iPhone after the removal of those applications.
The reasons for such a high energy consume by those applications I don't know, but let's hope that the next versions of those twitter clients solve this problem.
More about iPhone battery life, applications and settings of the iPhone can be found at How to Change the World.

Origin

In few words: Great Movie.

For those of you who have already read the comics (Wolverine Origin), tell you that the movie summarised the comics in more or less 2 minutes and then goes on with its own argument and plot.
But there is nothing wrong with this. The first X-Men movie was already not following the comics 100%, a trend which was continued by the second and also the last part.
The characters in those movies were already known by every Marvel fan, but the story behind was a bit different.
With Wolverine Origin is again the case. The main characters are already known, namely Logan and Striker and for everyone who has watched the second movie, it is clear that there has to be a connecting point between both of them and the adamantium.
A lot of questions are solved by this film, but of course, a lot more arise.

The best part is to try to recognize all the mutants who are in the movie, some are obvious (no names, no spoilers here), other maybe not.

Also a good deal of special effects and some plot twists which maybe are not the taste of everyone, but which make the film version of the Marvel universe astonishing also for comic readers.

My advise: go to the cinema and enjoy it !

May the Xmas be with you

Imperial City

Last recovery time after duty as diplomatic escort was four free days in the Imperial City. You know what I mean, that part of the planet were the Emperor resides. Not so off borders as you can think but crowded with people from every corner of the galaxy, even some people from my habitual duty planet. But much more people, far more, from my planet of origin,. They were everywhere and, as usual, impossible to miss as they always talk to each other shouting :D

The first stop after reporting at the local clone trooper post was the Arena, aka Colosseum (Wikipedia). Quite impresive, but also very well known, always have been in pictures, movies...

The guided visit was done by a very funny native who was all the time quoting the word "crazy" as a kind of Mantra to explain everything about the Colosseum and, of course, with several references to the movie  "Gladiator". The actual tour does not allow to visit the underground part of the Arena as seen in the film "Jumper" but it seems to be plans for allowing it in the future.

Nevertheless is interesting to know that the ground of the Arena was hollow, just a wooden floor covered with sand to absorb the blood of the gladiators to avoid accidents due to a slippery floor. This kind of construction allowed the use of the underground area for keeping the slaves, gladiators, animals and other paraphernalia used in the shows. The whole Arena was equipped with a system of hidden holes on the wooden floor for special effects, like lifting up a hungry tiger just to the ground space right on your back. Surprise !

Just in front of the Colosseum is the  Arch of Constantine (Wikipedia), also well known and emblematic. Also there you can find the Roman Forum (Wikipedia), very nice even if it looks only like a pile of stones lying around ;)

From there you can walk down to the Column of Trajan (Wikipedia), present in every history book and kind of monumental history book itself as the whole column is covered with a relief which relates Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars, somewhere in todays Romania, which seems to be the only country in that area which still uses a latin-based language.

The walk along this part of the city can be crowded with more visitors than desired but is still a very nice way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Close to the Column of Trajan there are some small places where it is possible to enjoy a very tasty pizza. But, in general, there is not need to worry about the food, it is usually great :)

Another nice spot of the city is the Piazza di Spagna (Wikipedia), at the bottom of the Spanish Steps which lead the way to the church Trinità dei Monti.

In the surrounding streets it is possible to found some shops, mainly for clothes and complements, but also several nice restaurants and wine bars. The last are specially recommended as the offer on starters or finger food to have with the wine is fantastic.

This was day one. Second day, meeting the Emperor.....

Forever

I stand alone in the darkness
The winter of my life came so fast
Memories go back to my childhood
To days I still recall

Oh, how happy I was then
There was no sorrow, there was no pain
Walking through the green fields
Sunshine in my eyes

I'm still there everywhere
I'm the dust in the wind
I'm the star in the northern sky
I never stayed anywhere
I'm the wind in the trees
would you wait for me forever?


This is probably my favourite song, the one I usually listen when my heart is sinking and I'm feeling a bit under the weather. Today I'm pretty OK, but don't you think it's a nice song?

Capital City

This weekend some aliens ambassadors were here for the Galactic Senate session. As part of our duty, a clone trooper detachment was deployed for their protection. The following is a brief report of the ambassadors tour across Capital City...

 

On of the main features of Capital City (a.k.a. Amsterdam) is the neuralgic point of Dam Square, just at the end of the main street heading from Centraal Station. A Royal Palace presides the square, which is flanked by the Nieuwe Kerk on the right. The spot is usually crowed with tourist as several street performers use to be here. They wear different outfits and just stay there, on top of a small pedestal, like statues, so that the people can make pictures with them. Of course some money is expected to be offer in advance.

Just behind the Royal Palace it is possible to find an incredible departament store, the Magna Plaza. 

This place is the former main post office of the city and was built between 1895-1899. 

Today is one of the nicest shopping facilities of the city. Inside of the building there are several mechanical stairs which allow a nice view of the walls and columns which conform the interior. The capitals or ornamental heads of the column represent people from different countries from all around the world since the neighbour Belgium to the exotic Brazil.

But the main feature of the city are the canals. Starting form Centraal Station, the canals build a semi-circular net which connects and covers the city. They total more than 100km and are cross by more than 1500 bridges. On sunny days, the local population and the tourists take the canals. A good amount of locals are able to drive a boat and own one or known someone who does. Therefore it is not strange to see bunches of people just passing by on a boat, with some friends, maybe some (loud) music, drinks and food.

Another possibility is to rent a boat and participate on the river party. The people use to wave their hands and greet the pedestrian on their festive trip across the city and are frequently taken in pictures by the wondered tourists. 

A very nice option is to make a canal cruise with one of the several companies which offer this service. Some of them are located direct in front of Centraal Station, other on the street which connect it with Dam Square. 

The price is more or less the same and the tour takes around one hour. So, it is not worth to wait more than 15 min for a tour to start but just go to one of the other companies and check if their tour starts earlier.

The boat will navigate the main canals and pass close to several of the main landmarks of the city. Herengracht (Gentelman's channel) is one of the more beautiful ones as the houses along its side were the property of the more powerful and rich families of the city on the Dutch Golden Century. Today those houses are owned by banks, advocates and insurance companies.

Also the official residence of the city mayor is on this street.

The ground in Amsterdam is not solid enough for supporting buildings and the houses were usually edified on wooden poles. The stability of the foundation was not always the optimal and for this reason a lot of houses are not able to keep the vertical and have to bend onto the surrounding ones, laying on them. The effect is quite weird.

Not part of the cruise on the canals, but for sure the main point of tourism of the city is the (in)famous Red Light District. Very different during daylight hours than at night, the place is always crowed with people walking around. The major part of the tourist just pass by, look to the sex shops, scape from the door-keepers of the numerous live sex shows and watch the few girls who are inside the windows. At night or at least after it gets dark, the presence of police is quite obvious as well as the recurrent approach of people offering all kind of drugs to the visitor. Once I even saw a guy being guided out of the district hand-shelled by a younger one, who was not wearing any police uniform but civil clothes. No idea about the possible offense or the outcome....

The lack of space to build houses in Amsterdam is an endemic problem since decades. For this reason some people just made their houses not along the canals but on the canals, on boat-houses. They are anchored on the sides of the canals and in several degrees of wellness / decadence.  Some of them are registered as houses by the local government of the city and enjoy legal status, which also allows them to have access to running water, electricity, telephone and gas lines. Obviously there are also an undetermined amount of illegal boat-houses, which obviously lack those services.

Amsterdam is also a very important harbor since centuries, for sure not so huge as the one form Rotterdam, but still big enough for the Artemis to dock in. The feeling passing close to it on the much smaller tourist canal cruiser was like watching an Imperial Destroyer from the Millennium Falcon, just amazing. 

Last part of the trip is the NEMO and the replica of a Dutch ship of the Dutch West Indian Company (yes, the same from Pirates of the Caribbean). Btw, some of the characters of the movies are to see inside of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Wake me up when September ends

A very long summer, plenty of problems. So please...