4 things and a lizard

Art Futura

2008-10-25T14:47:04Z

Mañana iré a Artfutura. ¿Alguien andará por allí? :)

PD. ¡Por fin no coincide con el Salón del Manga! WEEEEEE!!! A buenas horas!!! XP

Two weeks summary

2008-10-12T23:01:27Z

A few things I've been doing since my last journal update:

1 - I went karting and improved my lap time. It's 38.2 seconds now and going slowly down...
2 - Prepared an ARG for my friends atreides47 and hannonle . My first time as a puppet master!
3 - Runned the ARG and it went "more or less" as planned (damn Barcelona transports!)
4 - Got a new job! Hooray!
5 - Started working at my new job.
6 - Watched Formula 1 today and worshiped Fernando Alonso! Hooray! Two in a row! The champion is back!

I will further comment on number 2 and 3 asap.

Cheers! ;)

Del 15 al 1

2008-09-28T19:26:22Z

¡Qué grande Alonso! ¡¡Qué grande!!
Salía en la posición 15 y escaló a lo más alto del podio.
¡Cómo hemos disfrutado hoy con el Gran Premio de Singapour! :D

Ese lujo llamado Hamlet

2008-09-22T15:28:45Z

Estoy todavía en estado de shock por los precios que están alcanzando las entradas para Hamlet en eBay, sobretodo teniendo en cuenta que a nosotras nos costaron £30 por cabeza...... O___O

Me siento muy triste por no haber podido conseguir entradas para la performance en London (se agotaron en 3 horas), pero también estoy tremendamente feliz por haber podido verlo en Stratford. Yeeeeeeepa! ^_____ ^

nota: No, eso que lleva David en la mano no es un destornillador sónico... XDDDDDDDDDDD

the end of the 'what'?

2008-09-10T09:37:14Z

At 9.30 am local time, 300 feet below the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, the most powerful particle accelerator ever built became fully operational.

The Large Hadron Collider is activated !!!! RUNNN !!!!

....

... but the World did not end .......

...

... blimey! XD

So many things to tell you

2008-09-01T17:08:40Z

I've already been home for a few days now and I've been organizing a pretty huge bunch of photographs. I have so many things worth telling you that I can't even start. Thus, I recommend you to head over to nuriwan 's journal, who's been doing her homework (unlike me :P) and wrote our story with many nice details. Thanks, nuriwan, you're a star! ^_^UUUUUUUU

- The Epic Tale I (Bath and Cardiff)
- The Epic Tale II (Cardiff and Dunraven Bay)
- The Epic Tale III (Stratford-upon-Avon and London)
- The Hamlet Experience

I've been adding many new photos of the trip to my Facebook. If you have access, please comment, if not, I may post a few curious pictures here later on for you to see..... :P

All in all, I have had a wonderful time in the UK. We did so many different things in just a few days that now everything seems to me like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey... well... you know.... stuff...... XD

Probably, the most relevant experience was, as expected, going to see Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon. I have been to many plays in Spain and the UK, I love theatre and arts, but I can say without any doubt that this was the best play I have ever been to. I was hooked from the very first scene (the lighting was totally genius in that one! I'm still in awe!) to the very end. The acting was superb, the special effects awesome, the direction excellent and the script LEGEND! God bless Shakespeare! XD

I loved Hamlet so much that I wanna see it again!
I wonder if I'm mad enough to try and get tickets for the performance in London........ I wonder..................

I'm back!

2008-08-22T21:50:10Z

I'm back from the UK. I'm not home yet though. I'm spending some days on the beach, on the lovely coast of the Baix Empordà. I'll have access to my computer again on Sunday and I'll begin to download the tons of pictures from my camera.

I've had a wonderful 8-day trip. I can't summarize it in only a few lines but maybe with just a few words...

Hamlet - beer - Cardiff - The Fratellis - Doctor Who - London - Catherine Tate - Tredegar House - hopping - driving on the left - japanese restaurant - Russell T Davis eating an ice-cream - Shakespeare - stuffed suitcases - rain - lots of rain - Bath - delicious buns - English breakfast - pubs - David Tennant - shopping - more beer - sonic screwdriver - Chris O'Dowd - M4 - Tutankhamun - astronaut food - and... more rain

Photos comming soon! *____*

Travel Non Stop

2008-08-11T18:59:29Z

I am back from Switzerland. I had a worderful time hiking and sightseeing. The landscape is absolutely impressive to say the least. I am already missing it. I unpacked, washed my clothes and I am packing again. I am leaving for the UK tomorrow at noon. I do not have enough time to post my pictures from Switzerland today but I promise I will post some of them as soon as I am back home.

weeeeeeeeell..... okaaaaay.... just a little teaser to keep you waiting... ;D

A Goddess Made of Rock

2008-08-07T21:18:20Z

I see Her everyday, first thing when I wake up. I see Her when I go hiking, when I eat and when I drink, when I swim and when I look for marmotes. She follows me everywhere and She is always there to protected me.

The Matterhorn is in people's dreams even before seeing it.

Where am I? :)

Google Code Jam Solutions

2008-07-22T00:08:16Z

I am back among the living after a domestic disaster involving a broken water heater and a flooded router. Ouch! XP

I promised I would publish my solutions for the 2 first problems of the Google Code Jam Qualification Round on Friday but my computer was just too wet to work... sorry....

Ok! Here they are, better late than never. I used Java to solve both problems. You can read the problem statement and/or view my solution by clicking on the links. I think my code is quite clear and easy to read. If you have any question, please leave a comment. ;)

- Problem 1. Saving the Universe

The urban legend goes that if you go to the Google homepage and search for "Google", the universe will implode. We have a secret to share... It is true! Please don't try it, or tell anyone. All right, maybe not. We are just kidding. The same is not true for a universe far far away. In that universe, if you search on any search engine for that search engine's name, the universe does implode!

To combat this, people came up with an interesting solution. All queries are pooled together. They are passed to a central system that decides which query goes to which search engine. The central system sends a series of queries to one search engine, and can switch to another at any time. Queries must be processed in the order they're received. The central system must never send a query to a search engine whose name matches the query. In order to reduce costs, the number of switches should be minimized.

Your task is to tell us how many times the central system will have to switch between search engines, assuming that we program it optimally.

Input

The first line of the input file contains the number of cases, N. N test cases follow.
Each case starts with the number S -- the number of search engines. The next S lines each contain the name of a search engine. Each search engine name is no more than one hundred characters long and contains only uppercase letters, lowercase letters, spaces, and numbers. There will not be two search engines with the same name.
The following line contains a number Q -- the number of incoming queries. The next Q lines will each contain a query. Each query will be the name of a search engine in the case.

Output

For each input case, you should output: Case #X: Y where X is the number of the test case and Y is the number of search engine switches. Do not count the initial choice of a search engine as a switch.

( Java Solution )

- Problem 2. Train Timetable

A train line has two stations on it, A and B. Trains can take trips from A to B or from B to A multiple times during a day. When a train arrives at B from A (or arrives at A from B), it needs a certain amount of time before it is ready to take the return journey - this is the turnaround time. For example, if a train arrives at 12:00 and the turnaround time is 0 minutes, it can leave immediately, at 12:00.

A train timetable specifies departure and arrival time of all trips between A and B. The train company needs to know how many trains have to start the day at A and B in order to make the timetable work: whenever a train is supposed to leave A or B, there must actually be one there ready to go. There are passing sections on the track, so trains don't necessarily arrive in the same order that they leave. Trains may not travel on trips that do not appear on the schedule.

Input

The first line of input gives the number of cases, N. N test cases follow.

Each case contains a number of lines. The first line is the turnaround time, T, in minutes. The next line has two numbers on it, NA and NB. NA is the number of trips from A to B, and NB is the number of trips from B to A. Then there are NA lines giving the details of the trips from A to B.

Each line contains two fields, giving the HH:MM departure and arrival time for that trip. The departure time for each trip will be earlier than the arrival time. All arrivals and departures occur on the same day. The trips may appear in any order - they are not necessarily sorted by time. The hour and minute values are both two digits, zero-padded, and are on a 24-hour clock (00:00 through 23:59).

After these NA lines, there are NB lines giving the departure and arrival times for the trips from B to A.

Output

For each test case, output one line containing "Case #x: " followed by the number of trains that must start at A and the number of trains that must start at B.

( Java Solution )

See you in Round One, next Saturday! :D

Google code jam progress

2008-07-17T11:39:35Z

Hey!!! I submited my solution for code jam's problem one: Saving the Universe! Yay! :D
My first submission for the small set was wrong though, because I'm stupid and I started the output file writting "Case #0" instead of "Case #1". How silly! So I may get a penalty for that.... blah! XP

But I'm very happy with my super fast code, even for the large set! I had so much fun coding and it worked neatly! I will post it when the qualification round is over. :)

Now I'm going to eat something and I'm off to the job interview. I will take the laptop with me! Can't wait to solve the rest! :D

EDIT Jul 17, 19:18

Hello again! I am back from the interview. It took me like four hours altogether. And I already solved the second problem, Train Timetable, in about 2 hours. Probably the train trip provided me with some inspiration. Hehe! ;P

I didn't make any stupid mistakes this time. The solution for the small set was correct! I hope my answer for the large set is correct as well. We will know at the end of the qualification round.

I'm off to solve the last problem. bye!

EDIT Jul 18, 02:45

I struggled and struggled for hours with the last problem, Fly Swatter, but with no success... In my opinion, this one was way harder than the other two.... or I kept missing something??? :(

I increased the thickness of the ring and the strings by the fly's radius, and imagined the fly as a point. Then tried to compute the area inside the racquet that was not covered by the strings. But I got stuck with complex formulas when computing the gaps affected by the ring. It was too complex but at the same time they asked for quite a good accuracy. I must have missed something...... ?????

Anyway, I PASSED THE QUALIFICATION ROUND! AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! :D

On the other hand, I am so sorry because I couldn't help those of you who left comments on this journal entry. I was too focused on the third problem. I am sorry. I hope you solved them in the end, mates.

I will post the code for the first two problems tomorrow. By the way, if somebody could tell me a good method to "swat the fly", I will be very very happy! ;)

Now... time to go to bed................ ZzzzZz zz zZZz zzz....

Hello world!

2008-07-17T00:36:25Z

The Google Code Jam 2008 has begun! Weeeeeeee! ô^0^ô

The Qualification Round will last 24 hours. We have 3 problems to solve in this round.
I have just printed out the problem statements and will read them all and think of some method to solve them before going to sleep. It is already 2:30 in the morning. Too late to start coding I'm afraid... XP

My intention is to wake up early and have something solved before lunch time. I have a job interview at 15pm. And that trip will steal at least three hours of my coding time. :(

Anyway, If I can solve the problems in 24 hours, I can also get through the qualification round in 21.

We will see. Wish me luck! ;P

Life on Mars and beyond

2008-07-16T17:27:16Z

Yesterday evening I attended a conference at the Science Museum of Barcelona (CosmoCaixa). The title was "The Next 20 Years of Human Space Flights". It was a public panel organized by the International Space University, as part of their Summer Session Program. It was moderated by Prof. Walter Peeters, form ISU, and had three astronauts as invited speakers:

Pedro Duque (ESA),
Jeff Hoffman (NASA, MIT) and
Robert Thirsk (CSA).

I had always wanted to meet an astronaut and I met three at a time. What else can I ask for? :D
I enjoyed the conference to bits. I would say it was very inspiring, to say the least.

They talked about a bunch of interesting subjects. They made a short introduction at the beginning and spent the rest of the time answering questions from the audience. People from everywhere in the Globe spoke their minds and raised questions to the astronauts; Chinese, Indians, Canadians, Germans, Spaniards... It was like a tiny United Nations!

The astronauts were questioned and talked for two hours about space walks, the main issues of a long space manned trip to Mars, space tourism, the end of the Shuttle program, curiosities and experiences on board the ISS, about new voyages to the Moon, etc, etc... They even talked about Arthur C. Clarke and Science Fiction and how Space has been and will always be a great source of inspiration.

Some curious bits that caught my attention:

Pedro Duque didn't know who Paris Hilton was. We found this quite amusing! BRAVO PEDRO FOR NOT WASTING PRECIOUS BRAIN SPACE WITH CRAP!!!! I must follow his example! XD
Another curious story was that of Jeff Hoffman in a spacecraft watching a meteor entering the atmosphere. He is an astronomer and at first he thought that could NOT be a meteor because it was... below him! XD
Robert Thirsk was probably who impressed me the most. He is a Mechanical Engineer, a Doctor of Medicine and got an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management. All in ... one ... single ... person. Currently, Thirsk is assigned to a long duration mission onboard the ISS. He will launch as a Mission Specialist on the Soyuz scheduled for July 2009. Impressive! *___*

I loved it! I will now seriously look into those ESA job offers I'm getting by email everyday! I want to become part of the Space Program and contribute to Mars exploration!

To summarize it all: I think it was the most beautiful conference I've attended in years.

code.jam

2008-07-13T00:33:45Z

Any programmer out there entering the Google Code Jam?
The qualification round starts on July 16 2008! :)
I have never entered any coding competition and I want to give it a try, just for the fun of it!

I feel like coding! Hehe! XD

vicio sobre ruedas

2008-07-09T21:18:51Z

Ya es oficial, tengo una nueva obsesión: los KARTS.

Creo que todo empezó hace unos meses, en el Curso de Conducción Segura. Como ya os comenté en posts anteriores, me lo pasé genial y aprendí muchísimo. Me enseñaron a trazar curvas, cómo funcionaba el contravolante, las maravillas e inconvenientes de la tracción trasera, etc, etc...

Desde ese momento, quise volver a probar los derrapes y el sitio ideal era el circuito de karts (hacerlo por la calle quedaba feo... ^^U). Así que engañé a mis compis del trabajo y nos fuimos al Indoor Karting Barcelona a hacer unas tandas.

¿Qué pasó? Que el mismo día nos hicimos socios y ahora vamos, semana sí semana no, a dar vueltas al circuito como unos descosidos. Nunca pensé que esto sería tan divertido......... ni tan doloroso.......... XDDDD

La primera vez que monté en el kart hice un tiempo de vuelta de 46 segundos y pico. Ahora me doy cuenta que iba muy de tranquis, nunca pisaba el acelerador a fondo por falta de costumbre y todo el mundo me adelantaba. Mis amigos acababan agotados y doloridos y yo estaba tan fresca como una rosa.

Ayer fui al karting de nuevo con mis amigos viciados. Mi tiempo ha bajado a 39 segundos y pico y... ¡me duele todo el cuerpo! ^___^UUU

Me duelen las manos de agarrar el volante muy fuerte. Me duele la parte trasera de las piernas, justo por encima del tobillo, porque en el kart hay una p*** barra blanca que no sé para qué c*** sirve y que se me clava durante todo el rato (ver foto más abajo). Me duele la parte interna de las rodillas de la presión contra el depósito de combustible. Y sobre todo, me duele horrores la espalda porque aguanta toda la fuerza. ¡Tengo tres moratones enormes a lo largo de la columna y parece que me hayan pegado una paliza!

Pero no me importa en absoluto porque disfruto como una enana. :D
Yo creo que a mediados de la semana que viene ya estaré lista para volver a la pista. MUAJAJAJAJA! XD

Este es uno de los karts en los que corrí hace unas semanas:

Más información sobre mi nuevo vicio, remezclada con otras frikadas, en próximos posts...... ;)

Happy Presents (part 2)

2008-06-30T10:04:50Z

As promised, here it is the second present I got from my friends for my birthday..... :)

Believe it or not, it is a home made Doctor Who game of cards!! :D

The Bad Wolf Corporation is back, after the celebrated Who is Who? game, with another odd release: Happy Couples! XDDD

The TARDIS like box (which really looks bigger on the inside!) includes:
    - 6 3D glasses.
    - 1 "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" device
    - 1 "Yes! I can decide" device
    - 1 deck of cards
    - 1 deck of 3D cards
    - instructions booklet

These are the two decks of cards. Guess which one is 3D? XDDDD

And the two strange devices:

Basically, the object is to see which of up to 6 players can pair up the most cards. The one keeping the Master Card at the end loses all points.

In addition, my friends invented a set of many other crazy rules. First, at the very beginning, you must use the "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" device to decide whether you will have to play with the 3D glasses on or not.

This is a close-up of the "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey" stuff... XD

If more than half of the players end up wearing 3D glasses, you will have to play with the 3D deck of cards. Otherwise, you will play with normal cards.

Then, each player in turn must use the "Yes! I can decide" device to decide if they pick one card from another player, pick two cards, reverse direction of play... among other strange actions.

And this is the "Yes! I can decide" hi-tech thingy:

The whole thing had such quality that I had to ask them whether they had made it themselves. The decks of cards in particular are absolutely amazing!!! O___O ..... Of course, they are made in Gallifrey! XD

They even did the 3D effect using a Photoshop tutorial! AWESOME!

nuriwan, mac_chan, hannonle, atreides47, quickquotes... I love you to bits, mates! *_______*

hip hip hurra!

2008-06-29T20:57:35Z

CAMPEOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES!!!! :D

I think I'm too white 'n' nerdy

2008-06-27T14:15:06Z

It's been ages since last time I watched one of "Weird Al" Yankovic's videos. I had almost forgotten what they were like, when the wife of a friend of mine sent me this video. It looks like they totally made it while thinking of my friend!! I couldn't stop laughing! This is PURE BRILLIANCE! :D

Actually, I reckon I know two or three people fitting this profile.... *LOL*

White N' Nerdy
(english)

White N' Nerdy
(con subtítulos en español)

Please, raise your hand I you see yourself in the guy appearing in the video in more than five ways! XDDDDDDDDDD

EDIT: Bloody hell!!! Look what I found!!!! XDDDDDDDDDD ( this )

Happy Presents (part 1)

2008-06-26T11:29:37Z

On Tuesday I went to mac_chan 's house. I was meeting some friends in order to develop our plans of World domination when..... they amazed me with these wonderful birthday presents!!! (although my birthday was like two months ago... XDDDD)

The Face of ~~Boe~~ Master t-shirt. Because they know I like Mister Master... ;P

And the rear view..... (a reference to this). Because they know I like The Scissor Sisters too! *LOL*

Aren't my friends made of awesome???? ^______^

Comming soon..... the fantastic second present........................ :D

BANG!

2008-06-26T11:02:51Z

La revetlla de Sant Joan no s'entén sense pirotècnia. Un Sant Joan sense petards no és un Sant Joan.
Això és la única cosa que va quedar de la bossa de petards que vam comprar dilluns a la tarda...

BANG!!! ;D

Need for Votes

2008-06-23T10:36:23Z

Ya podéis votar por mi dibujo en la web de ING Renault F1!!! :D

Aquí ---> http://my.ing-renaultf1.com/en/photos/rf1pp/

Es el que está firmado por "nem", claro ^______^

La única pega es que te tienes que registrar en la web para votar. umpf!

Sé que es un rollo pero... ¿me votáis, paaaaaaaaios? Que más triste es de robaaaar...

Taluego!

EDIT: oiiiiiiii! Se puede votar una vez al día! :D

Need for Speed

2008-06-21T22:42:41Z

Supongo que a estas alturas ya sabréis que soy fan de la Fórmula 1, ¿verdad? Bueno, pues os presento mi última frikada. Esta es mi entrada para la RF1 Paddock Pass competition, un concurso que organiza la web del equipo ING Renault F1:

( Need for Speed )

El premio es un Paddock Pass de dos días + alojamiento en Budapest para asistir al Gran Premio de Hungría con toda la gente del equipo.

Cuando esté la "submission" validada y se pueda votar os aviso, ¿vale? ñij ñij ñij! ô^0^ô

tan tranquila que estaba yo...

2008-06-19T17:33:24Z

Mis amigos y familiares llevan semanas presionándome psicológicamente para que busque trabajo. ¿Por qué no lo busco? Pues porque entonces es posible que lo encuentre. ¡Que quiero hacer vacaciones, leñe! XP

El caso es que este mediodía he sucumbido a tanta presión y he actualizado mi currículum en Infojobs. Un par de horas más tarde y ya me han llamado dos empresas. ¡Una de ellas sin ni siquiera haberme apuntado a la oferta!

Ahora yo pregunto.... ¡¿¡¿dónde c*** está la crisis?!?! XP

Midnight at the Twilight Zone

2008-06-18T12:30:43Z

Yesterday I got to bed at midnight, with a steaming hot cup of herbal tea in one hand and my MacBook on my knees. And watched Midnight, the tenth episode of Doctor Who Series Four. And it was like the good old The Twilight Zone was back...

Midnight is a Russell T Davis' episode. I had not read the credits at first but I noticed it by the typical gay reference. I thought... "oooh, that must be Russell's". And it was. I am usually not very fond of his writing, but in this particular case I must admit that I really enjoyed the episode. I even think that I could taste a bit of Moffat's flavour in it, don't you think so? :D

I totally loved the story! I think it would be worthy of being included in The Twilight Zone series! It was more of a psychological thriller than a typical Doctor Who story with monsters and lots of running. Also remided me a bit of Cube. Have you seen the film? The characters are also confined in an enclosed space and the world "outside" is unknown. Suspense, conflict, fight and death. The worst of human nature arises and everyone regrets it in the end. I bet this episode will become a classic one day.

In my opinion, the plot is good, very good indeed. But David Tennant's performance is absolutely outstanding! This guy is amazing! Really! Tom Baker used to be my favourite Doctor since I was a kid but I regret to inform you that he has been definitely relegated to the second place. I must bow before Tennant's incarnation of The Doctor! (Oh my! How I gonna miss him when he leaves the series!)

One of my favourite bits was all the speech synchronization thing. Especially at the end, with the Doctor and Sky, when she breaks in first. That fraction of a second is worth its weight in gold! It made my hair stand on end. And I would give David Tennant an Bafta for his performance from that moment onwards. What happens next is unsettling and disturbing and for crying out loud.

Other things I liked:
- No Donna. Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits! But an episode with the Doctor on his own, without the help of a companion, is a good variation for a change.
- "Cause I'm clever!". For once someone got to say something at the Doctor's high self steem. HA! XD
- And last but not least........... RAFFAELA CARRÁ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG!!!!!!! *ROFL* XDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Now, only 3 episodes to go and I am really scared of what is going to happen. I have had a bad feeling since the very first episode of series four... and after watching the preview for next week............ oh my... oh my...

What do you think? Are you as worried as me? :S

Oh! Before I forget! This is a present for all of you who have already seen the episode. ^_____^U

puzzles aftermath

2008-06-14T19:47:38Z

Awful! My performance was awful! Did I mention I was going to beat my personal record? HA!
I don't know why, I supose I got nervous, but I spent an awful amount of time on Nebijok! Ridiculous! And many others! I used to do very well on those... damn! :_(

For next year, I must remember to practice under time pressure. Definitely.

EDIT: Ok. I have spent some time doing the unfinished puzzles. This is a note to self regarding next year contest:

1 - Try numeric puzzles first.
2 - Try path puzzles second.
3 - Give priority to high score puzzles.
4 - Try word puzzles last.