My father just discovered the internet a while ago through his job and likes to come and check what his older son has to say. The problem is that my father can’t speak English and so I taught him how to go to Google Translator and translate my page.

Of course Google Translator is not perfect just like any translation engine isn’t but anyway it will surely at least help.

I imagined how boring it must be to go to Google Translator every time he wants to check my page and finally decided to add a little link for him to easily click and get the job done. It’s placed in under the “Links” list and is called “Em Português”.

And now dad, this translation goes for free: E agora pai, esta tradução é à borla:

O meu pai descobriu há uns tempos atrás a internet através do seu emprego e gosta de vir ver o que o seu filho mais velho tem para dizer.
O problema é que o meu pai não fala Inglês e então eu ensinei-o como ir ao Google Translator e traduzir a minha página.

Claro que o Google Translator não é perfeito tal como qualquer motor de tradução não o é mas, de qualquer forma, vai certamente pelo menos ajudar.

Imaginei como deve ser chato ir ao Google Translator de cada vez que quer ver a minha página e finalmente decidi adicionar uma pequena ligação para facilmente clicar e ter o trabalho feito. A ligação está sob a lista dos “Links” e é chamada “Em Português”.

Great news for the Python community in Portugal.

Last week I took knowledge that Nuno Mariz, a Portuguese Pythonista, created the Portuguese Python User Group!
I quickly joined it and send my regards to Nuno for the idea and action.

So far we, proud Portuguese Pythonistas, have a Django powered web page with only a blog, contacts and a planet (and a Google group as well) but it seems there’s gonna be more.
About the planet, give it a look and add it to your RSS feeds. All posts I’ve seen so far are in English, so, you don’t need to know Portuguese to follow us.

Good job Nuno! Let’s spread the Way Of The Python!

So what-up!?

Today I got up and told my girlfriend we should go take a little car trip. The idea was to go to Lugo but we ended up going to Santiago de Compostela as we were willing to go since a while ago.
The day was rainy but shiny as well, since we woke up pretty late, when we arrived there it was around 4 PM.

The center of the city is really beautiful with it’s main attraction, the cathedral which is the target of the well known pilgrims that journey in the Way of Santiago (or St. James).

I bought a t-shirt with some Celtic art (wich I dig a lot) and the sayings “Arte Celta · Galicia Máxica” — “Celtic Art · Magic Galicia” in Galician. My girlfriend bought a mug with some nice Celtic symbols as well. I know, the souvenirs are pretty cliche but whatever…

So, why the “celebration day” in this post’s title? Today is the 25th of April, a very special holiday since it’s the day when Portugal celebrates the Carnation Revolution which ended Portugal’s dictatorship and brought freedom to the people in 1974.
I am thankful to the people (the directly involved in the revolution and the others who always stood up and against the regime, like my grandfather) that not so long ago made it possible for me and others not to know how is to live in an authoritarian regime.

I’ll spend this week in Portugal to take care of some non interesting things (taxes and stuff…) but also to enjoy some holidays!

Today I had a great lunch ( and yesterday a great dinner) at my hometown of Brotas – Évora, Portugal. My family never had the traditional 100 members Sunday family lunches but this time I had the pleasure of having my parents, my girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend, my grandma, some of my uncles and cousins and even some neighbors that came after it for a coffee. It was great!

About the food, we had “Migas de Espargos”, a very traditional, fat and tasteful, dish, together with some of the Portuguese finest red wines from my region. My father opened a bottle (a limited edition from the year 2000) I had offered him about 2-3 years ago (that he stated it’d be to celebrate my MsSc degree) and it was smooth like silk.
To end it, nothing better than a strong coffee, deadly-caloric desserts, Port wine and whiskey (I discovered I like Bushmills whiskey btw…).

Yes, this is the best of my country.

We Portuguese people are always (just a little) behind the modern Europe.
If you are from a country like the US or the UK, you’re probably used to identify yourself just with your driving license or so, but in Portugal we like PAPER and BUREAUCRACY, so, we have/had a card for pretty much every record the government has of you. For example, I always used to carry with me in my wallet my:
1) ID Card (proofs I am a Portuguese citizen);
2) Driving license;
3) National health card (proofs I am registered in the national health system);
4) Elector card (proofs I can vote and tells people in which town I can do that);
5) “Contributor’s” card (proofs I am registered in the financial system or something like that)
…apart from these I carry also cards for bank account, University and others…! And I never got my social security one (although I am registered in it, of course) or else it would be #6! If I sit with my wallet in my back pocket I get 1 feet taller!

Plus, the old ID card was not the card you might be thinking of (if you’re not Portuguese)… it was a paper card with a plastic cover, see the image bellow:

It had two squares: one for your fingerprint and another for your photo and it was huge!

It had one advantage that is now lost though: if you happen to be falling off a cliff, you could quickly take out your Portuguese ID card, fold it in a hang-glider and escape form death to live a happy life!

But now (well, not so long ago) we got what we call the “Cartão de Cidadão” — Citizen’s Card. It replaces a bunch of them (1, 3, 5 and the missing 6 and eventually will replace the #4)! Yes, what a relief! Today I went to pick mine and I am happy about it! I am no longer ashamed when I show my ID to, for example a Spanish person.

Here’s the card’s design (no, that’s obviously not me in the picture) :

So, to pick my card a lady at the what we call “Civil Register” had me identified using a fingerprint scanner connected to her Windows powered computer. She told me:
“If you like this computer business and stuff, you can buy a card reader and go to this website… then click here… and you can edit your data in your card like your mailing address, etc.”
and I thought: “hmm, will it work in my Linux box?”

Another step towards modern Europe!