This post is intended to be a completely personal point of view. Steve Vai was (and still is) a big influence as I was a kid trying to put some beautiful noise through my guitar.
Time has passed and I still enjoy listening to his music. He is a complete musician with a priviliged ear and fingers. Of course, he was a guitar freak since his early years, practicing and practicing every time, but either way he became an endless source of creativity and talent.
Chit-chat is done. The thing is that here I present my 7 (magic number) favorite songs of Steve Vai, just for you to know and (in a desired case) also respond with your favorite ones from him. Tan ta ra raaaaaaa!!: Continue reading →
More than a song, it is actually an amazing instrumental composition. If not familiar with Latin American music, let me tell you that there is a wide range of music styles in our beloved continent. Not everything is Salsa, my friend.
Danzón was born in Cuba in the late years of the XIX century and the early XX century. Because of its neighborhood with Mexico, precisely at the Atlantic coast, the Mexican nation adopted the dance with joy and became very loved as it is a romantic and flirting approach for the dancers, full of lust, enchanting moves and passion.
The danzón (which literally would mean in Spanish something like “Big dance”) became popular in the region along the Gulf of Mexico, being Veracruz the most representative place of it (tho Tabasco and Campeche have good representatives too). However, the melody today is “Danzón No. 2” from the Maestro Arturo Márquez, the talented composer born in Sonora. Nowadays is this melody almost a symbol of Danzones and thus of Latin American music in general. No, it is not THE symbol, but it is for sure now a classic.
Many may not like Dudamel‘s version, as he uses to be very “fogozo” in his conduction. He gives another interpretation. Wagner would shit inward for sure if he hears Dudamel directing with his style, but we must not forget that this is a Danzón, a Latin American song and I personally think that Dudamel has taken it beyond and it is a real pleasure to listen to it.
Well, too much chit-chat. Following is my favorite version of Danzón No.2. Enjoy!
I first met this guy time ago when I saw a couple of his videos in internet. I thought “this grandpa has some passion”.
Huh, boy! Igor Presnyakov is not only that guy of the videos. He is HUGE, I mean it in the musical way. He became famous alsmost instantly and no doubt why! He is a virtuosos with the rare capacity of making very good covers with an acoustic or classical guitar. Excellent dude and big talent! Just check him out!
After so much thinking I decided to move on with the videoblog idea, and the best option to do that is sharing my complete experience as a Mexican.
Finally I can give you the first of many (hopefully) videos about Mexicans and their beautiful land. I present to you “Understanding Mexicans”
It would be really nice if you all can give me the proper feedback. I do this just to share whitout any other compromise, just for the pleasure it gives me when more and more people know about my country.
Please feel free to express your opinions regards the topic in a respectful way.
I don’t know if I wrote before about this madafaka, but I saw the video time ago and I think it deserves to be remembered. Remember that Rock never dies. Although not so popular as the shit we are used to hear in the radio, the many variations of Rock are always present to satisfy the animal instinct of release tensions and pressures through a powerful shot of Energy directly to the brain.
Anyho… here is again, the Goddamn Metal freaking rooster!
Annoying, exciting, boring, awesome… Computer Vision and its applications might be sometimes a roller-coaster of emotions, but it is always a pleasure to work with. Some of those familiar with Vision systems, might be aware of some nice properties and most of all, some fancy tools that help us to play around with images and computers; but one important thing that no one should forget in this field is the so-called Fundamental Matrix. If you have still some doubts about its development, then here you have a bit of its application:
Looking for the lyrics. Well, I totally recommend you to go to the website of Daniel Wedge, the creator of this totally entertaining song.
Yes, it is possible and you can do it. Actually you don’t have to be a total expert in programming or Maths. Yes yes, you have to know some good stuff, but being a nerd or a genius is not the point.
Gabriel Taubin, an Argentinian Mathematician researching in Brown University is in charge of this project and made it available for everyone, so if you have 3D Computer Vision as your hobby, then this is the perfect start. As I said, you don’t have to be an expert but you need to go deep into it and it will be totally amazing, I promise. Just have a look to the website:
The final results would be amazing and they provide every kind of tool that you may need. It seems that the used methods vary, but that’s just extra fun. I really encourage you to try it, because it’s cheap, fun and totally useful.
The following video is NOT of the project, but it shows you how accessible is to build your own 3D scanner.
In my daily struggling trying to learn the German language I use to try new tools and techniques to improve my skills and be more understandable, but of course many times it doesn’t work just because “Deutsch ist eine verkackte Sprache” as my flatmate says.
But well, I love the goddamn language and I will always learn it. So I decided to install an extension for Chrome called “Language Immersion”, which is an experimental extension that changes randomly the words in the text of the websites that you are visualizing, so it mixes the normal text of your language with some words in the language you wanna learn. You can manage how deep you wanna be into the language ranging from Novice to Fluent (5 different levels)
Simple but an effective idea, isn’t it? Let me post the video that explains how this works:
I’ve tried it and after 5 minutes I stopped it. I think it was going worse than it should. Wasn’t helping at all. Now, I don’t consider myself an expert in German or that I express myself perfectly (nor in English) but I certainly find the translations really shitty. I can say it by now for German, which is a complex language that depends so much in the context and every word in a sentence makes sense when you know the other words too. If you have a sight of what Dativ, Akkusativ and other related things are, then you can get my point. The translation in Google Translate is not optimal and when the context is cut, it falls instantly like a drunk bitch with heels. I don’t wanna imagine it with Hungarian!
Is good that they are using the translation tool from Google, it is pretty massive. They even have Swahili and Yiddish available… but not Japanese! I know is another alphabet, but come on! They have Chinese!
Only 5 levels of immersion don’t give too much to play with. I was in the 4th and around 20 or 25% of the words were translated. Changed to the 5 and then all of them were translated.
A good thing is the possibility to highlight the translated words and when you don’t know the meaning you just click on the highlighted word or expression and it shows it back in the original language. But even better, if you wanna know how is it pronounced, you just hold the pointer over and it says it automatically. Of course you can disable all these features and even the extension itself whenever you want.
But yeah… is a shit and it actually could confuse more than it helps. A good idea with bad translations, few options to choose and a lack of intuition; but as I stated, it’s still experimental, the creators said. I hope gets better soon. By the moment I’ll kick it out of my Chrome.
Science and Comedy have been always connected everywhere because for radical and revolutionary ideas, it is needed a bit of humor and consideration. Both are groundbreaking and quite entertaining if you are in the proper mood.
However only few have had the balls to mix them, play around with them and success with it. One of them is the case of The infinite monkey cage, a comedy series produced by the BBC, where physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince discuss about the relevant topics in Science, such as the origin of life, Probability, Sound, Chemistry, etc.
Before the only science and rational debates mixed with comedy that worth watch were the ones of Bill Maher in his show, where in a round table he discusses different topics of the daily American lifestyle with many personalities. And it was good, politics, religion, science and other disciplines were part of this round table. However, the truly scientific point of view was some times missing due to… well… Bill Maher, although a really good and critical personality, has no scientific background.
This time TIMC offers us Profr. Brian Cox, a guy with an awesome personality and a complete understanding of “the stuff called Science”, and Robin Ince, the acid debater that pulls the attention of the public.
You can check them in the Apple Store if you wanna download their Podcasts, I highly recommend them to those who wanna embrace Knowledge and Reason in a funny way. Otherwise, you can also visit their channel in the BBC podcast website.
A new semester in the Uni has begun and in this second week I am already feeling the first pressured tasks. No probs, this time planning and hard work will be a constant besides a good health caring and exercise. Perhaps less Internet Facebook is what I need.
This semester I will struggle a bit with two very interesting courses: 3D Computer Vision and Image Understanding in English and German, respectively. Before I had “Machine Learning Method for Computer Vision Applications” in the same responsible chair but it was so few application and had other courses to attend that required more attention, so I couldn’t experience more in it. That’s gonna change in this semester.
Both courses are held by two very experienced professors. 3D CV is taught by Nassir Navab, whose experience in research is impressive, winning international awards and being a top recognized researcher in the world. He is going to be my lecturer in this Semester. He already began giving some introductory class showing the great advantages of 3D Computer Vision and, most of all, its applications. I was hypnotized, it was great and that’s why now I’m willing to share everything I learn and find in Internet about this matter. It’s really cool and exciting for me.
The second lecturer is Carsten Steger, who’s in charge of the class “Bildverstehen” (Image Understanding) that, as you may suppose, is in German. He is another experienced guy but his field is not in the Universities, it is the industry. He gives solution to real-life problems and that experience is shared in his class. My first impression of him is really good, he’s an open guy with a relaxed style and a very good idea of what he is talking about, besides he can truly explain himself.
Both good professors, both great courses, and an excellent semester to start experimenting with the sources of the student life. From now on you will probably see more often some posts related to Computer Vision, my new bitch (and vice versa).
But we will start with Computer Vision Online, the largest website about CV out there, I think. They offer the newest stuff about CV and its applications, besides some other curiosities and interesting sources, where you can find books, software and even you might find a suitable job for you if you are really into Computer Vision. There are tons of positions in many Universities and Labs. I recommend you to check it out!
And finally I share this video from the chair of Computer Aided Medical Procedures & Augmented Reality (CAMPAR) in the TUM, where the researchers just adapted a Kinect sensor and started to track a guy’s body to virtually visualize it as in a magic mirror. Watch it!
Mayitzin 