Cateto blog

My favourite unofficial live Prince recording, released in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:07:00 +0000

Among the many unofficial sets of Prince live shows released in 2009, my favourite one is this: 26, from 4DaFunk (First Avenue Series). It contain a stunningly good audience recording of the gig played to celebrate Prince's 26th birthday (June 7th, 1984), and this show really kicks your ass: the audio quality is unbelievable for a recording made 25 years ago, and the performance is absolutely astonishing, full of raw energy. A must have for any collector of Prince live material.

By the way, and for legal reference: this site is not related in any way with the distribution of unofficial material, so please do not ask/offer for it in the comments as it won't be published. This comment is made strictly for discussion purposes.

The known Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:17:00 +0000

I found this video via Daring Fireball, and I'm speechless. Beyond the technical quality, it truly shows how small we are. And overall, the question remains: where is located the finall bal, representing the whole Universe?

Disappointment in Copenhagen

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:30:00 +0000

The news are all over the media and there is no need to go into much detail. Suffice to say that, in spite of the big expectations, the world leaders were unable to reach any significant commitment in order to reduce the CO2 emmissions. Furthermore, instead of fighting for an agreement together, the discussions were split, and at some point USA imposed its weight to press China in order to get a truly minimum commitment. Obama failed to behave as a leader moving truly forward. And without nothing important to offer to the public opinion, with plenty of leaders leaving the meeting before the end, and in a situation of "save yourself if you can", the outcome is truly disappointing.

But beyond the lack of agreements, maybe the worse outcome of Copenhagen is the disbanding of a common effort, and the clear evidence that UNO has no capability whatsoever to enforce a concerted action from nations. The role of UNO has been losing importance during many decades, and this might be the final symptom of something which is hardly a secret anymore: there is a clear need to implement a new organization, involving all the nations in the world, were issues which affect all humans, of the current and future generations, can be discussed and real solutions be undertaken.

Until that happens -if that happens anytime, that is-, the world is closing a chapter full of expectations, but with no results at all. And we keep on acting as if life on Earth was for granted, no matter what we do.

Spanish tv channels Telecinco and Cuatro merge: when money wins over ideology

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:25:00 +0000

El País, the main Spanish newspaper, has been the core of a big media corporation called PRISA, which has been for a longtime the most influential in Spain. They had a strong progressist profile, and have normally supported the socialist party and governments. PRISA had a period of growth some years ago, when it entered the business of football rights, to be sold through its digital satellite tv platform. Apparently the financial position of the company was very strong; but all of this turned to the bad when other powerful enterprises, namely Mediapro, started playing the same game with even deeper pockets, so that they got football rights, thus weakening the main product sold by PRISA.

But this is just a very quick summary of a very long and complicated story. Fact is that, after years of dominance, PRISA found itself in a dangerous position, with a tremendous debt which was menacing the very existence of the group. During the last two years, rumours abounded about different possibilities to recover the mother company, by selling different assets. In this context, last Friday it was communicated that tv chain Cuatro, belonging to PRISA, would merge to Telecinco, owned by Mediaset (the holding of the Italian prime minister, Berlusconi), in a deal which included also the sale of a significant part of Digital +, the satellite tv business of PRISA.

If we simplify things a bit, to avoid all technical details, this means basically that Berlusconi pays to save PRISA. And the sad history, besides all of this, is that PRISA is one of the few big media companies who faced Berlusconi in the past. For instance, the famous pictures of Berlusconi parties with European leaders, which were censored in Italy due to the pressure of Berlusconi, were published some months ago by El País; and this newspaper had a firm editorial line, criticizing the behaviour of Berlusconi, who happilly mixes private business with the government of one of the main countries in Europe.

Unsurprisingly, there are many people now who doubt whether such editorial line will continue. El País, for good or bad, and in spite of a few ugly stories, has always been a reference among newspapers in Spain. But after the events summarized here, one can't avoid to think that such a reference is over. The fact that Berlusconi and all his money was needed to ensure the existence of PRISA is one of those disappointing ironies one can find, from time to time, in life.

Happy new year 2010 everybody!

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Well, we are approching the end of 2009, and I thought it would be nice to use a picture of my kids to wish you all the best in 2010. This is an old tradition but one worth to keep, in my opinion.

Carpe diem.

By the way, the kids are holding pieces of paper which say, in Frech, "Merry Christmas and Good New Year". I made this shot for sending it to a few frends I made in France, and I thought it would be nice to show it here as well.

Gossip at its worst

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:36:00 +0000

This chick, Belén Esteban, is unfortunately one of the media stars, now, in Spain. And in this picture you can see her brand new look, after her n surgery.

Her main merit is that she was once married to a famous torero, Jesulín de Ubrique. Since then she used all possible strategies to appear often on gossip paper and tv magazines, where she has become even more famous due to being the uberdefinition of vulgar.

It's sad to see that nobodies like this chick can receive massive attention in media, and I guess that the society (or at least, a significant part of society) is to blame; if nobody payed attention to her, no magazine would pay her to appear in the cover. The reasons why many people seem to be interested (or even attracted!) to this ridiculous lady are impossible for me to understand. So let me speak today about her as a symbol of what I detest most: the gossip per the gossip, the fame of people who never did anything of actual interest, and whose only merit was to share bed, at some time, with other people (who often were similarly uninteresting).

What a shame, what a wasting of space in media, and what an ugly symptom of how world is going on, in Spain, and in many other countries where this kind of wanabes-who-never-were-anything are a plague.

Passion while performing

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:20:00 +0000

This video made the rounds recently, and I just love it: a kid, playing "I'm yours" on ukelele. Priceless, and one of those cases where the video shows transparently the kid at the other side of the screen.

First time at the circus

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:08:00 +0000

Yesterday we went with the kids, for the very first time, to the circus ("Circo Acuático"). And in spite of the rather dark environment, I managed to capture a few shots to show their stunned faces. I show you here two of them, taken with my low light wonder, the Finepix F30. I particularly enjoy the blue one, with the sharp contrast.

Nine & Penélope Cruz

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:39:00 +0000

I'm convinced that the few guys who still don't know who Penélope Cruz is, will learn about her after this film:

If you want to see the trailer in full HD, it's available here.

Haidar, Spain & Morocco

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:33:00 +0000

Let's oversimplify things a bit:

Haidar, a woman from Sahara fighting for the right of Sahara to be independent, states in a document that her nationality is from Sahara, not from Morocco. Then the Government of Morocco gets infuriated and decides to retire her the passport. She takes a flight to the Canary Islands (Spain) where she is accepted to enter, in spite of the lack of passport.

Then she starts a hunger strike, at the same airport where she arrived, to reclaim her return to El Aaiun, the town where she comes from, in Sahara; but does not accept a passport from Spain. Morocco asks for excuses from her to the king, or else she won't receive any assport. And her representatives state that, if Haidar dies, it will be Spain's fault.

Of course the situation is much more complicated, but in the end, it is just like I explained.

The situation of Spain is quite tricky in this whole business; in 1975, we abandoned Sahara in a shameful history, when our 40 years dictator Franco was dying and Hassan II, king of Morocco, decided to launch a pacific invasion of Sahara, taking profit of the tension in Spain. Since then, in theory we support the occurrence of a referendum to decide whether Sahara wants to be independent or join Morocco. But in the real world, Morocco anexionated Sahara in 1975 and is acting, at all levels, as its owner since that date, in spite of repeated referendum promises made with the backing of the UNO.

So at this point, I guess that the Spanish government feels it has some kind of responsability in solving the strike of Haidar; but I think the whole situation is rotten enough to prevent any reasonable solution, and moreso if we consider the ways of acting of the Morocco government, which, to put it mildly, are not exactly "trustworthy", regardless of the very cooperative attitude of the Spanish government of Zapatero.

But things reached a point where only the involvement of the European Union, or the USA, could press enough to get some kind of agreement. And the irrational atittude of many advisers of Haidar is not helping matters at all.

Anyway, I see only a positive outcome of all this: Haidar and her strike have put back the controversial situation of Sahara in the map of Spanish politics, and I think it was about time.

Noise & leaks to warm-up the anti-global warming meeting in Copenhagen

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:54:00 +0000

I have previously posted about leaked emails evidencing some ugly behaviours between scientific researchers supporting the theory of global warming. As expected, that story has been extensively used by naysayers (aka people & researchers denying the occurrence of global warming as a consequence of the human activity) to discredit the many studies dealing with it.

Well, I'm no authority and thus have to use reference sources, coming from places you can trust. And in scientific research, the weekly journals Nature and Science are as good as it gets, being the two multidisciplinary journals with most impact in the world of science. They have published recently articles on this story, and I wholeheartedly suggest you to read them to get a clear idea on what is happening: here you have an Editorial at Nature, and here another article in Science.

Finally, let me say that the fact that such leaked emails have produced such a big controversy RIGHT BEFORE the big meeting in Copenhagen dealing with global warming, is probably much more than a pure random event.

Mass rejection of swine flu vaccine

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:45:00 +0000

I am linking an article dated October 2009, but the report is accurate to what I read & hear lately: apparently, the population in Europe is mass rejecting the vaccination against swine flu. It seems this time people did not blindly buy the supposedly huge dangers of swine flu, and therefore a large proportion of vaccines will remain useless. Some reports suggest it might be simply discarded.

Still, the big business for the companies producing the vaccines is already done: they sold their product to the different health administrations, who surely spent a very significant amount of money after the initial, catastrophic reports. Hopefully this lesson will be learnt for future occasions, and hopefully the people in charge of taking such important decisions will think twice before buying lies from large corporations manufacturing vaccines or antivirals.

My opinion on democracy

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:30:00 +0000

The text in Spanish says:

"Democracy (from Greek demos, people, and kratos, authority). Government in which people exerts the sovereignty".

I couldn't agree more with Mafalda, truly.

With my greatest respect & admiration to Quino, one of the few people enabled to dissect reality with a smile. This drawing from the magnificent Mafalda series has been on the wall, next to my desktop, since I first started working, to remind me what the world is about.

Good, oldschool flu

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:37:00 +0000

I don't give a shit about swine flu, as I have written before, so I have absolutely no idea on how to label (on scientific grounds) the flu that got me during this weekend. All I know is that it belongs to the oldtime class of flu which puts you upside down, gets your body temperature a couple of degrees over the standard level, and is really annoying.

And yes, this is a kind of explanation for the lack of activity in this blog for a few days. But rest assured, even with flu and all, I remain an active lurker and will come back to the usual speed in a short time. The swine flu is one of the topics in queue, besides the global warming and naysayers getting hyped with the leaked emails, and the strange case of Haidar, a woman from Sahara who is receiving loads of attention, recently, in Spain.

Stay tuned. And my virus-on-the-way-to-leave send you their warmest regards.

Michael B and Sonny T backing one of the Jonas Brothers

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:18:00 +0000

A friend made me aware of this video, where you can see the first ever public performance of Nick Jonas and the Administration. It is a new band where Nick, one of the infamous Jonas brothers, is displaying his, ahem, musical talent, backed by a band where Michael B almighty plays drums and Sonny T plays bass.

No fan of Prince missed the power and quality of Michael B and Sonny T back in their New Power Generation years, where they deservedly won the reputation as the best rhythm section ever among Prince's bands. And to see them in the band of someone as ridiculous (musically speaking) as Nick Jonas..., well it almost hurts. I perfectly understand that musicians, even top musicians, need to get an income, and surely from a purely economical point of view, this will be an excellent business for Michael and Sonny, besides exposing them to a huge audience that might become very interesting too, for their future careers.

But frankly, I am sad after watching this video; both Michael and Sonny deserve much better than this.

New Alfa Romeo Giulietta

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:36:00 +0000

Well, after many months of speculations, leaks, and a sudden name change from Milano to the oldtime classic in Alfa "Giulietta", the first official pictures have been released. Another beauty from Alfa, although it seems the back of the car is not receiving unanymous acclaim. But I admit I love it. The beauty of the Giulietta, in combination with the wonders of the efficient, low consumption new MultiJet 2 Fiat engines, seems a perfect bet for commercial success.

Leaves at the Campus

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:50:00 +0000

Winter decided, finally, it was time to come to my city, and the trees realized (much for their disappointment) that it was not the second Spring in 2009, but only a lazy Winter who took its time to arrive. So leaves quickly became yellow and we have fantastic colours in the trees of the Campus where I work. I show you here a few samples, taken as usual with my Pentax K10D, 18-55 lenses fully open and straight to jpeg: no tweaking whatsoever.

Samsung NX10 to accept K mount with adaptor from day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:41:00 +0000

In a thread recently posted at the DP Review forums, the author (who claims to have tested the forthcoming Samsung NX10 mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses) states that it will accept K-mount lenses with adaptor from the very begining; it is unclear yet whether this adaptor will support autofocus, but regadless, this is very good news for us Pentax users, as it means we will have an alternative to the well regarded micro4/3 system from Olympus/Panasonic.

In the mean time, I would prefer an original Pentax model in this category, but nothing has been heard thus far, so we better rely on something for real as the NX10. But mind you, this is just rumours at this time, as the official specs of the NX10 have not been published yet, to my knowledge.

Pentax K-7, Adorama Readers' Choice Camera 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:34:00 +0000

The readers of the Adorama Learning Center have chosen the Pentax K-7 as the camera of 2009. Not bad as result, taking into account this comes from people who understands photography, and that the K-7 had almost triple number of votes than the number 2 camera in that list (1,524 votes for K-7 vs 447 for Leica M9). The huge amount of features, backwards compatibility with all K-mount lenses, small size and low price proved an unbeatable combination, leading to this prize.

Congratulations to Pentax for a job well done. I hope this model will also appear high in the forthcoming The Online Photographer list of TOP cameras of 2009, which will be published in a few days.

For those with an eye on the finer details: Great photographers of the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:19:00 +0000

Mike Johnston, author of The Online Photographer, just posted a truly priceless entry entitled Great photographers of the internet part II. If you like fine sense of humour and nice writings, do not miss it at any price. And then look after part I of the same series, which was another Classic among Classic comments in this blog, one of the most respected in the world of photography. And someone with the finest and funnest sense of humour.

The end of CD and the rise of the iPod as high-end audio source

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:18:00 +0000

Yesterday I found a most interesting article, entitled "Is this the end of CD?", written by Ed Selley and published in the December 2009 issue of the very respected, British journal Hi-Fi Choice. In that article, Selley outlines a process where CD seems on the way of dying, while the iPod is being used by more and more audiophiles to feed their hi-fi systems, since lossless audio files (in either Apple Lossless, or aiff formats) can be played with iPods.

According to Selley, late models of iPods (since 2006) have the possibility to feed USB digital audio, enabling their use as digital source, selecting then a D/A converter (provided with adequate connectors) in order to produce the final analogue signal which is fed to the amplifier. In coherence with this new feature, ultra high-end audio manufacturers like Wadia are producing devices designed specifically to work with iPods, such as the Wadia 170i transport with good reviews. Other audiophile manufacturers, like Jadis, produce tube amplifiers enabled to be fed by iPods as well.

I'm pretty convinced that optical disc-based formats, be it audio or video, are on the way to die, whether we like it or not. I'm pretty sure they will be used for minorities, but that is not remaining alive. I mean, if 98% of releases are not done in vinyl, then vinyl is not a format you can rely on for your future purchases. Same for CD/DVD when they become the outlet for only high end, audiophile/videophile releases (and I'm pretty sure that's what will happen).

I'm convinced also that the format which will become standard for commercial, online audio releases is some flavour of lossless, with Apple Lossless being at the top position. The efficiency in coding and the high speed internet allow to make it possible, no problem.

Some people argues that the future of music will be based on music on the cloud, selecting the song you want to listen from the net. I'm not sure if the cloud model will work for music. Just have a look at the recent stories of Palm Pre users losing their profiles data due to a problem in the cloud. Maybe it's just me, but I want to OWN the music I like, and I don't want to rely on the net in order to listen to it, even if internet becomes permanently available everywhere in five years.

Regarding the hardware used in the long term, all depends on the new features etc. At this time it is fairly obvious that the iPod has become, de facto, a standard. The very fact that extremely high-end audio manufacturers like Wadia or Jadis, are making hardware designed to interact spectifically with iPods, that means something. It seems that Apple is well aware of this new standard, and consequently they have stuck to the same connector, which means you can upgrade your iPod and remain compatible with your audio system. For instance, I got a dock for an iPod Photo a few years ago, and recently I got an iPod Touch, and both can be plugged to the same dock, which has line output to plug to the hi-fi system.

Furthermore, the point that current iPods have digital signal output (as described in Selley's article) means that, to all purposes, you can use them as top-notch audio source, using later a D/A converter of as high quality/price as you want, provided you use models capable of receiving that signal through adequate connectors. The only model which is currently exploiting this possibility is the Wadia 170i transport, but I suspect more are in the works.

In the mid/long term, when very high capacity memory cards become very cheap (and it will happen very soon), you will have a huge music collection, in lossless, in a tiny iPod (or whatever similar device) that fits in your pocket. Which means that you can listen to the same music while walking, while driving your car, at work, or at home. And you can do it using a full range of qualities: from crappy computer speakers, to good earphones, to high-end, large loudspeakers at home, by using a D/A converter of superb quality. In my book, that is audio heaven for music lovers, as it gives you full flexibility to adapt to your needs/possibilities at every place, without restrictions.

New Michelin stars in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Well, the wait is over and the much awaited news on the 2010 Miguelin Guide for Spain, regarding restaurants ratings, were released yesterday night.

The good news is that the Celler de Can Roca restaurant, one which has received unanymous acclaim for a longtime, finally achieved the third star in the guide; this was a huge clamour and it seems justice has been done. This way, Can Roca joins six other Spanish restaurants with three stars: Arzak (Juan María Arzak), Can Fabes (Santi Santamaría), El Bulli (Ferrán Adriá), Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui), Sant Pau (Carme Ruscalleda) and Akelarre (Pedro Subijana).

Living in Andalucía, I was happy to know that restaurant Alejandro in Roquetas de Mar was also awarded one star, so I look forward to visit that place in the near future. In the mean time, I hope that a personal, local favourite in my city, Córdoba, will soon achieve the same status: I am speaking about Restaurant El Choco, whose creative kitchen only needs a bit of additional effort and a better hall in order to get full shine. And let me add another favourite of mine, restaurant El Alma, a place for enjoying red tuna and good company, good wines, and excellent food. Finally, traditional food from Córdoba is perfectly shown in restaurant Taberna Pepe de la Judería.

150 anniversary of Darwin's "On the origin of species"

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:26:00 +0000

Yesterday, Tuesday 24th of November, 2009, marked the 150 anniversary of the publication of a truly landmark book in the world of science and also in the world of philosophy: it was "On the origin of species", where the theory of Evolution was first described.

The huge implications of this book for science, for our understanding of the world, and even for a better understanding of religions and their effects, are possibly, even today, underrated. Darwin was able to put upside down longstanding beliefs which considered the man as the center of the universe.

The fact that, in 2009, there are still people supporting the Creationism, is the best evidence of the tremendous impact of "On the origin of species" and the mighty reasonings of Darwin. What is sad is that some administrations & governments (namely, some of them in the USA) are confused enough to claim a similar treatment in educational institutions for both science (Evolution) and personal beliefs (Creationism). But that will be matter for another day.

For now let's celebrate one of the peaks in the history of the human accomplishments, and its creator, Darwin, whose illumination will never be appreciated enough.

Good publicity

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:09:00 +0000

To show an example of excellent publicity, here you have the ad for the Spanish Christmas lottery of this year:

Magnificent pictures: poll from National Geographic International Photographic Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Cateto) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:30:00 +0000

No words needed, just go there and have a look at the pictures.

Magnificent is no word enough for some of them:

National Geographic International Photographic Contest

If you want to see all contenders, you can do it here.

After this, all stupid discussion on pixel peeping, and neverending controversies about brands, models... all that just lack any sense.

Paraphrasing someone, it's time to say:

"It's about the picture, stupid!"