AeroPause has released a comparison between the different console dimensions, including the next-gen contenders like the Xbox 360 and PS3 in contrast with the “old” PS2 Slim or GameCube.

Lot’s of images and perspectives are available at

Microsoft released a spring update to the xbox 360 dashboard.

The update includes a bunch of new things which gamers were asking for some time now, like background downloading which enables you to download stuff from marketplace and listen to music or watch videos at the same time, improved media playback, and other general interface enhancements, like the cleaning up the Live Marketplace.

There’s a list of improvements and severall images available at Joystick .

Last weekend I participated in the 2006 International Spring Workshop on Chi Kung, Jisei Budô, Tai Chi Chuan and Energy Dance, organized by the “Escola Tradicional de Karatedo” (Karatedo Traditional School).
It was teached by Sensei Tokitsu, a person I came to admire by his history, philosophy and martial arts skills. You can browse his site and take a look at his works, books published and martial arts school.

The workshop lasted for 4 days, it was very tyring on the muscles (but I guess that’s what you get for working daily too much hours in front of the pc ) but nonetheless it was also very fun and educational (for the body and mind).
I felt like i’ve improved on a spiritual, physical and also personal level with this workshop, in the end I was wishing the workshop could last longer.
I’m really looking forward for the next event, untill there i’m going to continue working on my skills and improve myself.
I feel it’s important to have some sort of activity outside work, my mind needs it’s creativity stimulated and my body needs to work it’s muscles, improve coordenation and in general maintain my level of health.

And you, do you practice any sport activity or martial arts outside your work?

This summer promisses to be one of the best in term of concerts. Besides the usual festivals (Super Bock SuperRock, Sudoeste e Paredes de Coura) which will bring names like The Editors, Franz Ferdinand, Deus, Morrissey and many others, there’s also three concerts which i’m looking forward to see in July.

3) Gotan Project
A mixture of Tango, Rnb, dance music and other genres with some great beats of sound, really worth seeing, plus they just released a new album so there’s new musics to ear and dance.

2) Sigur Ros
Symphonic melodies, strange and beautifull sounds a mixture of music with emotions is what you can expect from this concert. I really liked their last album, it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard.

1) Belle and Sebastian
Fresh with a recent new album, Belle and Sebastian come to show their english sounds, excellent melodies and great lyrics vastly inspired from the 70’s. Not to miss.

Well, I guess i’ll see you there in a month or two. :)

Amazon.co.uk has stopped shipping Xbox Live Points to outside the Uk, which is a bit troublesome for me because Xbox Live isn’t working in Portugal (yeah, how lame of them) and the unnoficial way to get an xbox live account is to create one with an adress from a Live enabled country.
In my case I chose England because it was fairly simple to buy the points from Amazon, but looks like i’ll have to resort to something else.

I still don’t get why I live in the only country in the damn European Union with Xbox Live, I mean, one of the strong selling points of the Xbox is the multiplayer games, the ability to download demos, games and addons thru the net and so on.
Looks like i’ll have to scheme some way to get an account from a near by country (like Spain) and import the Live points.

On another note, my Xbox 360 is finally giving signs of overheating, I was expecting this for some time but looks like the day has finally come. Guess I’ll have to look for some sort of cooling solution too.