Amazing Krakow

I had heard a lot about this city, however after visiting, I can say that it really is a nice and beautiful city.

We arrived in Krakow on Friday, a very sunny and hot day compared to Dublin standards.  It was around 31C.  After settling in the hotel, we went for a walk around the city.  I could see that its quite an old city. 

The main square is the second largest in Europe, and one can find lots of things in this square, such as shops, markets, street entertainers and nice bars.  You can also meet the picturesque horses and cabins.

 

 

 

One of the main attractions in Krakow is the Wawel (castle), which is a majestic location.  Its a burial place for previous kings of Poland.  It was quite a walk to get there, but it was utterly worth it.

 

 

 

 

 And if you are in Krakow, you have to taste their range of beers.  I tried the Zwyiec dark, which I could compare to a Guinness.

 

 

 

 

On our last day there, we got a mini van to Wieliczka to visit the very famous Salt Mines.  Initially, I thought that it would just be some small dungeons with some salt attached to it, or some salt conservation unit.  How wrong was I!  Its literally a small village underground, completely built out of salt. 

Its amazing how all this could be dug.  And we only went down 3 levels, the guide said that there were more levels underground, which were not accessible to the tourists!  There were statues and carvings made entirely of salt, and the most impressive was a whole church made out of salt, which status of the holy Mary, Jesus Christ, and obviously Pope John Paul II.

Microsoft Mix Essentials Dublin 2008

On Friday, the 23rd of May 2008, I attended the Microsoft MIX Conference (http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/mix08/default.html), held here in Dublin, at the Cineworld, Parnell Street, in the heart of Dublin City. It was a very successful event, with excellent speakers which kept their audience engaged for the whole day.
First up was Lou Carbone, founder and CEO of Experience Engeneering, and author of “Clued In”. Lou’s presentation was on how everything we produce should give our customers the experience they expect. He also stated that you should give a “memorable” experience to your customers, so that they can come back time and time again. His presentation was full of interesting short clips, which stress the importance of user experience.
Lou was followed by Remy Pairault, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist. His speech was focused on the Windows Live platform, and what it can offer to the developers and their customers. He focused on the Live Passport Authentication method, and also how to incorporate instant messaging into your website.
After lunch, Chad Hower, which is an MVP, gave an introduction to Silverlight 2, and the potential there is in this fairly new Microsoft technology. Silverlight 2 can do much more than streaming videos. Developers can now deploy .NET applications into the browser on multiple platforms easily through the browser.

Martha Rotter, a Microsoft Developer in Ireland continued where Chad left, giving more information on Silverlight 2 and Deep Zoom. She also showed some hands on examples on how to integrate Expression Design Studio and Visual Studio to build cutting-edge applications. Another interesting feature of her talk was the Hard Rock cafe memorabilia website (http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/), and how this website uses Deep Zoom to perfection.

Chad Hower finished off the day, with a presentation on the ASP.NET MVC Framework. He showed some samples on how the new ASP.NET MVC Framework can help web developers make a better experience in their website for their customers.

It was a really interesting day, and I look forward to another event of this sort.

Lilljanata

Ilbierah fis-7:45pm t’hawnhekk intfajt nara il loghba Lille – Utd, kif naghmel kull darba li jkun hemm ic Champions League.

Bhala loghba nahseb kienet dominate ghal hafna hinijiet mil Utd, fej kellhom bosta opportunitajiet ta skor specjalment Ronaldo, Larsonn, Giggs u Rooney. U meta dahal Saha flok Ronaldo, li jien ma qbiltx ma din is sostituzzjoni ghax Ron kien qed jilghab loghba tajba hafna, kompla jizdied il potenzjal fl-attakk. Il lille, taqta lil Bodmer u lil dak in Nigerjan, ma kellhom xej specjali u nahseb il gowler taghhom Sylva kien l-eroj meta zammhom ghal hafna hin fil loghba.

Il gowls
Fuq il gowls hemm hafna polemiki. Il gowl tal-Lille li gie mhassar, jekk kien ikun hemm 100 referee, 60 minnhom kienu jikkonvalidawh u 40 le. Kienet purament decizjoni ta split second. Ir replays urew li kien hemm imbuttatura fuq Vidic, pero naraw hafna minn dawn ukoll, u hafna drabi il gowls jigu konvalidati. Pero il lajnsmen kien f’pozizzjoni tajba u dehrlu li jahssar il gowl. Fuq il gowl tal-Utd, nahseb kien gust li thalla. Kif qal Ray Houghton fuq il kummentarju tal-NTL, it-tim li qed jattakka jigi favorit f’daw is-sitwazzjonijiet. Fl-opinjoni tieghi, la Lille ma talbux it-tisfira tar-referee, ghalinqas hekk deher, Giggs kellu kull dritt li jaghtih mil ewwel.

Sigurta
Kif wiehed seta jara, is-sigurta kienet fjakka hafna u nirringrazzjaw l-Alla li ma nqalax xi massakru iehor tipo Heysel. Kif wiehed seta jara minn fuq it-tv, kien hemm mument li is-supporters tal-Utd kienu ippakkjati qishom ‘sardines’. Ma tistax tigini f’halqi il kelma Maltija. Biex tkompli taxxaq, il puluzija sprejaw il gass tad-dmugh u iktar iggravaw is-sitwazzjoni. Dan sahansitra affettwa lil Van Der Saar li moment minnhom kien anke deher li seta jinbidel meta Kusack bed ail warming up. Is supporters inglizi maghrufin ghal huliganizmu taghhom, pero xi hag hekk zgur li tirribellahom iktar! Skond kif qalu ir-rapporti, dan gara ghax infethu il gates tas-sezzjoni fej kien hemm is supporters tar-red devils, u dan iggrava is-sitwazzjoni. Nahseb jekk ma jkunx hemm penalizzazzjoni kbira, il UEFA tkun qed timxi ‘2 ways 2 measures’. Biex ma nghidux ukoll li wara il gowl ta Giggs, bdew jintefaw ‘missili’ gol grawnd u mument minnhom kien se jbati minnha Gary Neville.

Farsa
Biex ikomplu ikabbru il farsa tejatrali, il plejers tal-Lille iddecidew li huma ikbar mir-referee u war ail gowl ta Giggs dehrlu li se jabbandunaw il grawnd. Skond ic-cermen tal-Lille, hemm ligi fi Franza li jekk il-plejers jew il kowc jidrilhom li kien hemm decizjoni harxa maghhom, jistaw johrogu mil grawnd, biex ir-referee jigi sostitwit mir-raba ufficjal. Jekk veru tezisti din il ligi, veru ligi tal-gungla.

Nahseb din il partita se tibqa miftakra aktar ghal affarjiet li graw fuq l-istands u l-kummidji Lilljaniti milli ghar-rebha meritata tal-Utd.

Nahdem Dublin

Kien ezattament it-12 ta Marzu tas-sena 2006 meta illandjajt hawn go Dublin, fuq flight minn Sydney, li waqfet ukoll l-Ingilterra, biex nibda din l-avventura hawnhekk, wara sitt xhur gol Awstralja.

Mil airport qbadt il kowc direttament ghac-centru ta Dublin, u nista nghid li l-ewwel impressjoni ma tantx kienet xi wahda brillanti. Hlief affarijiet grizi u bricks orangjo ma bdejtx nara! Wara li kont imdorri f’dak il bini ferm sabih ta Sydney, b’dawk l-iskjajskrejpers li kwazi ma jispiccaw qatt, bdejt inhossni qisni gejt go pajjiz tat-tielet dinja.

Imma nsomma, din l-entrata suppost fuq ix-xoghol hawn, allura ha nikkoncentra naqra fuqu.

Mela wara tlett gimghat relax, pubs u hrug, irnexxieli insib xoghol, u rringrazzjajt naqra lil Alla ghax kont kwazi spiccajt broke. Li kieku ma sibtx xoghol sal-gimgha ta wara kien ikolli ninzel lura Malta, ghax il pjan kien ta xahar cans biex insib xoghol.

Anyway, l-ewwel xoghol li sibt kien ma kumpanija jismha Clearscape. Din il kumpanija kienet fic-centru, ghal minn jaf xi haga dwar Dublin, hdej ‘Marrion Square’. Sibt kuntratt ta 5 gimghat, veru ftit pero kien bizzejjed biex nibda ndawwar naqra ir-rota hux hekk. Kien kuntratt interessanti, fuq website ghad-dipartiment tat Turizmu.

Wara dan il kuntratt inzilt ghal gimgha Malta, kienet l-ewwel darba Malta wara 8 xhur. U meta ergajt tlajt, hdimt kuntratt iehor ta xahar u nofs, din id darba ma X-Communications. Kumpanija f’post centrali hafna, hdej Grafton Street. Kuntratt iehor interessanti, pero ic cucata li spicca f’Awwissu u ma kellhomx bzonn iktar is-servizzi tieghi, ghax il progetti li kont fuqhom spiccajthom, u ma kellhomx xoghol iktar ghalija. Dik xi kultant il problema li tkun kuntrattur hawnhekk. Terga Awwissu wiehed mil aghar xhur biex issib xoghol, ghax hafna progetti ma jibdewx qabel Settembru.

Insomma gebbed minn haw u gebbed minn hemm, irnexxieli insib 6 xhur kuntratt ma wahda mil ikbar kumpaniji li jezistu fl-Irlanda, Enterprise Ireland. Hdimt go kumpanija kbira u multinazzjonali u id-differenza hassejtha nghid il verita. Trid toqod hafna attent x’sistemi tahdem fuqhom ghax taffettwa hafna nies. Progetti enormi li zball zghir ifisser miljuni tal-liri. Pero kienet ukoll interessanti u tallimt hafna.

Issa l-kuntratt jiskadi fl-ahhar ta dan ix xahar u ddecidejt li ma nestendihx, ghax nixtieq nahdem fuq teknlogiji moderni, u xoghol iktar dinamiku. Naraw ximiss insomma………..

Vertigo to Finland

First of all, I am no expert in music and what I am going to write here is just my opinion.

This year, I saw the Malta Song streamed on di-ve.com from Dublin, where I am living at the moment. I do not know if its my connection or di-ve in general, but streaming was really bad. Sometimes Ruslana seemed like my grandmother dancing on the stage. But at least the sound was not that bad.

Also this was the first time I heard the songs. In my opinion, there should have been at least 10 songs to choose from, not just only 6 and a lot of bla bla bla. I would have wished to have seen more music and less talk. I also think that the interviews on stage where out of place and it would have been more appropriate to have some sort of a presentation in the form of a video, sort of the ones shown on Xarabank. I think it would have been more entertaining that way. Anyway, its just my opinion.

So, to the songs. I have to say that I was not one of those 30 thousand plus who voted for Olivia. Not that I thought her song was not good. But personally I preferred Trilogy’s song. If I had to give my placings, they would have been 1. Trilogy, 2. Klinsmann and 3.Kevin Borg.

Obviously this is just a matter of opinion and taste. However I must admit that if there was a singer who really merited to go to Finland was Olivia. Coming second on three occasions and trying again is not an easy option. I can imagine what went through her mind before singing the song. “Will it be fourth time luck?” However, I think that we will not make it through the qualifying stages this time around. I hope that I am proved wrong, and that the Eurovision in May 2008 will be staged at Ta’ Qali. But I have my doubts.

A singer that really impressed me in the Maltasong, and that I think has a very bright future if he keeps his legs to the ground is Klinsmann. I admit it was the first time that I heard him sing, and he did very well, considering he is still 16 years. His band reminded me of my favourite band, Green Day. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years, he can represent Malta in the Euro contest.

So as they say, see you in Finland in May.

Blogging Again

Well, after almost a year from my one and only posting, I decided to try and start blogging again, whenever I have some free time. I got hooked again on this blogging thing after seeing some very interesting blogs by others written on .NET. So I will try to write some hopefully interesting things that are happening in my life. Hope this will turn into an interesting one.

Cheers for now

J

Malta - Austria 1-1

Another nice page in the History of Maltese soccer. On the 50th Anniversary of our first match in 1957, against the same team Austria, we managed to get a draw on our own soil. Gilbert Agius was our scorer as early as the 8th minute! Andreas Ivanshintz levelled the score, and we were unlucky not to finish the game as the winning side, when a good solo run by Micheal Mifsud ended just over the bar.

Hopefully, this series of encouraging results will continue in our next games against Moldova away and Greece at home.