Internet Explorer 6 on Mac OSX

I never thought I would say this, but I finally have Internet Explorer 6 on my Mac!

No, I wont use it to browse the web casually, I’ll do it for development testing only. I promise.

You may ask why the hell am I going to do that. IE6 is dead, so it’s kind of stupid. I know. But tell that to the corporate company that has IE6 installed in all Windows PC’s and can’t upgrade because the IT department won’t do it because… well, just because.

SWITCH – The future belongs to them

Let me to tell you a story.

nce upon a time, a little boy borned in Portugal. This happened in 1992 and their parents called him Ricardo. It still is his name.

One day, in 2010, Ricardo brings us SWITCH for the first time, a conference about “technology, science, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in a network-friendly environment”. In 2011, one year later, the second SWITCH happens with 28 speakers and more than 200 attendees. It was last weekend. I couldn’t make it to the first one, but this one me and some Active Media folks (also one of the sponsors) didn’t miss it.

You might be thinking now:

“Wait, but 1992… we’re in 2011… that means that Ricardo is 18 years old? And he organized the first conference with only 17? Yeah, right…”

Well, you better think twice. It’s true.

Invisible Cities – a designer’s review

After reading the article “7 non-UX books you should read” on Johnny Holland Magazine, I decided to buy some. The first  I read was “Invisible Cities”, by Italo Calvino. According to Jeroen van Geel and Vicky Teinaki, the article’s authors:

Invisible Cities is a book that is experienced, rather than read. Not in an expansive, descriptive way – the novel is a mere 166 pages – rather, as if Mozart had been a writer. Taking place as a series of conversations between the explorer Marco Polo and emperor Kublai Kahn, the book has the feeling of the state of mind between dreams and reality – evocing deeper meanings without ever being too clever about it  (though apparently the structure of the novel is very clever indeed, employing such techniques as the Fibonacci sequence and sine waves). We’re never entirely sure if the cities that are talked about – the titular Invisible Cities, Cities and the Dead, Hidden Cities – are ones that Polo believes he has visited, or fables for the grumpy emperor. If I had to suggest a book that captured what magic was, it’d be this one.

If I wasn’t a designer, I would thought that it was a boring book. Why? Because I don’t like descriptive literature.

Flash + WordPress = Lovers

At the end of last year the portuguese Adobe User Group (AUG-PT) held a meeting where I was invited to participate as a speaker. It’s called “Stand Up and Speak” and you have 15 minutes to do your talk. Yeah, it’s a short time and that’s why ends on time, not even with @joaopapin horn! But I must say it was an interesting experience and I’m available for future calls With me was a group of fabulous people and professionals. Always a good atmosphere, which characterizes the meetings of the AUG-PT, and a participatory audience coming from various market areas.

About the event

Paulo Moreira talked about on multouch-devices  and the differences between European and Asian audiences.

gotoAndSki(‘Switzerland’);

What a blast! gotoAndSki(‘Switzerland’); was simply the best conference I ever been. And I’m not exaggerating.

Right in the middle of the swiss alps, a bunch of geeks joined together for 3 days of pure inspiration, networking and, above all, friendship. If you want to get jealous, here are some great photos.

It was the first time I met Fernando (the organizer), and i can only say good things about him . Although he deserves all the props for having the will to organize almost alone the event, he had the magnificent help of David. Well done guys!

the concept

It was really simple. Spend the days in the middle of the slopes with all the guys and gals and at night hear the talks. Beers included.

Hello world!

Finally… It’s been years since I said to myself: “I have to make this thing done”.

The problem? I always wanted to make an innovative website and never found the time to do it. So I decided that it would be better to wait until I had time. What a poor decision…

Inspired everyday by the chaotic (yet, well organized) mind of my boss at Active Media, I finally decided that it was about time. What it matters now is to start what we like to call the endless work in progress. And this is my start.

Together with this site came my personal cards, so I’m more than happy now. Here they are:

Both came in a perfect time. In the next days I will attend gotoAndSki(‘switzerland’);, a conference about Flash, Mobile and Design. And snow. Lots of snow  The expectancy of meet great people is enormous, so if you´re reading this and you’re there, I’m the guy with the red beard