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It's strange how people have their own interpretation of songs. I always thought "Hotel California" was a metaphor of hell. Reading Don Henley's comments: "We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles." perhaps I wasn't so far away. Click HERE to check what this song means to many different people. "Hotel California" (The Eagles) On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim I had to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway; I heard the mission bell And I was thinking to myself, ’this could be heaven or this could be hell’ Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say... Welcome to the hotel california Such a lovely place Such a lovely face Plenty of room at the hotel california Any time of year, you can find it here Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget So I called up the captain, ’please bring me my wine’ He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’ And still those voices are calling from far away, Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say... Welcome to the hotel california Such a lovely place Such a lovely face They livin’ it up at the hotel california What a nice surprise, bring your alibis Mirrors on the ceiling, The pink champagne on ice And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’ And in the master’s chambers, They gathered for the feast The stab it with their steely knives, But they just can’t kill the beast Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door I had to find the passage back To the place I was before ’relax,’ said the night man, We are programmed to receive. You can checkout any time you like, But you can never leave! A wonderful song just the same.

A couple of weeks ago I got my jacket stolen. It was a great leather and wool jacket. Not only did the thief get my jacket, he got my mp3 player as well. I'm not sure what he's going to do with it though, as it was purchased overseas and the recharger is not sold in Australia. Anyway, last week I decided that I would get a Sony voice recorder with a basic mp3 player and FM tuner. Here's the beauty: I looked it up at Sony's site and it sells in Australia for 199 Australian Dollars + shipping. Too expensive! I used shopbot.com.au to find better prices, and the best I could get was something like 160 + shipping. So I went to Amazon. The price was less than half!! HOWEVER, and don't ask me why, amazon does not ship electronics to Australia. I did some more research. I found technoweb (based in the US also), with a really fantastic price and international delivery. BUT, although the price was good, the shipping expenses were actually more the product itself!! what a joke! Finally, I came across www.frys.com, also based in the US. The price was excellent and shipping expenses VERY REASONABLE. So, I've actually purchased the voice recorder I was after for half the price I would have had to pay in Australia. (I did check customs.gov.au to make sure about import taxes and stuff, and everything is ok as the imported goods are for personal use and below the 1000$ mark). Now, isn't this a strange world we live in? Buying something thousands of miles away, paying for this product's airfare and everything , it's actually HALF the price than buying it here?? Who are the real thieves in this story, the ones who stole my jacket or the ones who try to sell me this voice recorder for 200$?

One would expect that with the advance of the internet, buying quality software would become easier. In my experience, it is actually the other way around! Choosing good software is surprisingly becoming very time consuming and there's simply too much information to look for. There are literally hundreds of sites with reviews, and it's very hard to tell whether the people who wrote those reviews have any connection with the company who creates the software or they're just home users who have tried the product and are being completely honest. This week I had the need to buy a back up program, and I wanted to get a good one with, apart from all the standards features, at least one other one which I consider essential: incremental/differential back-ups (some people actually quote them as being the same thing but apparently they're not!. I still don't know what the difference is, but basically when you make a back up, if you use the incremental feature, the next back up will only copy the files that have changed, thus saving time and space). Anyway, I spent endless minutes with very little success. Finally I came across this great site: http://software.toptenreviews.com/ What's so good about it? Look what they do with their reviews: Now, I know that this is probably very unfair on some software developers who are releasing some truly excellent software which is never released there, and I'm not even sure what topten reviews gets out of all this, I fear they do get some comission everytime a user hits one of the links to buy software from their site. But guess what? nothing is free in life, and these guys are providing a good service and it's a chaos out there when it comes to choosing software so at least these guys are trying to add a bit of order to this chaos. Tucows? maybe I'm doing something wrong, but have they removed the option to select software according to best ratings? because I think they have! What a waste! Anyway, don't blame me, I just wanted a good back up program...

Australia is playing against Japan in a crucial match which will decide who gets into the semifinals of the Asian Cup. Soccer is BIG in this country. Yes, sure. Let me check the TV guide for today: 2 p.m, channel 10, AFL, Collingwood vs Essendon. 7:30 p.m. channel 10 AFL: West Coast vs Sydney. 10:00 p.m. SBS, Tour de France! 11:00 p.m. Netball! 11:25 p.m, channel 9: Golf! Midnight, channel 10: Motor racing! wow! Where's the soccer game? ah? PayTV, that's where it is! Anyway, shame on all these CEOs who run TV channels in Australia.

That picture above is my Nokia6600. I've always used Nokia phones. Anyway, last week I started getting messages from people in my contact list, they said things like: "What??" "What do you mean??" "?" etc. After some research, I found that I had lost all the credit in my prepaid account (only 20$, lucky I'm not on a contract!). Anyway, to cut a long story short, my phone had a virus and, "on its own" initiative, was sending multimedia messages to everyone in my contact list (including people overseas!). Needless to say I wasn't sending those messages myself, it was my bloody phone!! 9which, by the way, were being sent 24 hours a day, nost just during the day time!.) I went to a vodaphone office and they actually offered me to repair my phone for a "friendly" fee of 80 bucks . After some more googling, I found a site with the key codes to hard-reset a Nokia6600 for... 0 bucks. The virus is gone. How did I catch it? I haven't got a clue, but basically, you should never accept multimedia messages, period. So, why am I telling you this story? well, if you were in my contact list, please be aware that I didn't send that sms, blame it on my Nokia 6600!!

After tonight's Eropean Champions' League final between Milan and Liverpool, held in Athens, and which the Italian won (2-1) I will not mention the word "soccer" again for a long time. It's Rugby League for me now. Go WARRIORS!!!!!! National Rugby League of Australia Website.

Yes, I'm European and as such, I'm a soccer fan, I can't help it, it's in our blood. Anyway, today was a happy day for me: Liverpool won through to the Champions League final 4-1 on penalties after the semi-final second leg against Chelsea ended 1-0 to the Reds, leaving the aggregate score locked at 1-1. Why did I want Chelsea to lose? No particular reason, I simply can't stand their coach: Mourinho. Needless to say, I'd love Liverpool to win the final in Athens (against either Milan or Manchester) but having made it into the final is already good enough to make me happy.

Some friends tell me that it's very unpolite to set the "ignore" flag on all my MSN contacts (this way they can't see I'm connected when I log on). I have to disagree with my friends on this one. I don't have all that many people on my contact list, I don't know, somethng like 50-75, but some people have hundreds. My point is, I'm the sort of person who likes to reply to someone greeting me. I know people who never use the "ignore" flag and simply don't reply whenever someone says something to them. I only remove the ignore flag whenever I have something important to say to that particular person. If I didn't, I'd be spending 24 hours a day simply talking to people. To me, msn is a bit like a phone line. Can you imagine having 100 people a day on the phone every day? And just for the record, I can't recall a single email I haven't replied to (from someone I knew, that is, not talking about spam here!). My advice: get a life, use the "ignore" flag.

Your Vocabulary Score: B You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated! How's Your Vocabulary? http://www.blogthings.com/howsyourvocabularyquiz/ How embarrasing! I didn' know what "fret" meant!

Ok, I know defenders of the two browsers will never reach an agreement on this matter. Personally I use both, but amongst the many advantages that firefox has over IE is... it really loads pages so much faster! I'm talking about a speed difference of something like 50% or more, it's just shocking! Anyway, I strongly recommend people to use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. At least give it a try and decide by yourself.

(2007 Oscar, best documentary) The subject is AIDS in China. Specifically in Anhui province. The victims are poor families. The adults donated blood in evidently unsanitary conditions: one individual apparently connected to the blood drawing procedure describes combining the donated blood of fifty individuals and then re-injecting a little bit of the mixture into the veins of the donors. It is hard to believe that China's health system would be so primitive! The consequence is not surprising. The donors get AIDS. In the absence of treatment to slow down the progression of the disease, they die quickly. Many had children. They are now orphans. Some of the kids are contaminated themselves. This documentary short is about those kids. The most poignant case is that of Gao Jun, a toddler sick with the disease and being taken care by an uncle. Fear of the disease by the local community segregates the kid to his own backyard, prohibited from playing with other kids, a trio of chickens his only companions. The uncle finds that keeping a kid with AIDS in his home crimps his social life. Finding a wife is not going to be easy. The solution is to have another family adopt Gao, one where the adults are HIV positive. For Gao this is a solution of sorts, but his health is deteriorating and eventually the state (unclear) takes him away, only one of very few that receive such attention. In Miao Zhuang Village, what's left of the Huang family are three children. Though uninfected, they suffer discrimination from a local community that is ignorant about how the virus is transmitted. Health officials do make an appearance in this rural province. They distribute leaflets about AIDS awareness. In Guo Zhuang Village, Nan Nan, a young infected girl is taking medicines. Her uninfected older sister is about to get married. She vows not to tell the groom about her sibling's disease. Though the film is primarily concerned about the social conditions of those children, political issues are indirectly raised. One can't help but be underwhelmed by China's social services. At one point, a charity organization comes to help. In my book, charity and communism are antithetical; the latter, if properly applied, obviates the first. The inescapable conclusion is that China's CP is "C" only in name, the lofty communist principles of the past now abandoned. "People's Republic" now an oxymoron. Author: rasecz, from United States Published on the Internet Movie Database iFrame (Click here to see this in a new window.)

I found this old song on itube a couple of days ago. I used to love it! I think I'm getting old! iFrame (Click here to see this in a new window.) Computer games I fidget with the digit dots and cry an anxious tear As the XU-1 connects the spot But the matrix grid don't care Get a message to my mother What number would she be There's a million angry citizens Looking down their tubes at me Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter-puter-puter, computer games There's safety in numbers, they say 'Cause the figures never lie No perfect persons ever noticed one computer die I'm programmed to a schedule What will the answer be Is it suicide run till the work gets done 'Cause the matrix grid don't say Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter-puter-puter, computer games Jammed up tight by red traffic lights Advance one level on green These opportune commuters They're blasting on thier hooters I fidget with the digit dots Frustration rules out there As the XU-1 connects the spot But the matrix grid don't care Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter-puter-puter, computer games Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter-puter-puter, computer games Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter-puter-puter, computer games Com-put-er Games

I've just read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Here's an extract: "SYDNEY'S rental crisis hit home yesterday when up to 100 people queued to inspect a single property ( ) The frenzy illustrated the predicament faced by renters, with agents warning the city's lowest rental vacancy rate in 20 years could push up weekly rents by as much as $150 by year's end. " Another 150$ a week is something like 650$ a month (on top of what the price is already!). Who the hell can afford that kind of extra money? Or, put it this way, what kind of job do you have to do to make that kind of money? Is it really worth living in Sydney to become a slave 50 hours a week just to pay the rent?

A few days ago I wrote a review on Stickies, which is without doubt one of the best electronic sticky notes programs. Version 6 has just come out and guess what? it remains FREE! Click here to visit Stickies website!

I use a really good personal organizer called "Do-organizer", but if you want something simpler and free, how about one of those electronic sticky notes programs? They're really useful, and this is one is feature rich. I've tried just about every single one there is and and I can safely say that this is one of the top 3. Once on screen, stickies will remain where placed until closed, even through reboots Stickies appearance can be customised; fonts, colours and buttons may be changed, and styles saved. Stickies can be resized. Stickies can snap to each others edges to keep them lined up Stickies can be transferred from one machine to another either over a TCP/IP network connection, or by using an SMTP mail server or MAPI client:Hierarchical friends list, which may be automatically transferred from other friends Play a sound file on receive Signature for transmitted or emailed stickies Favourite friends, and custom lists can be made Stickies can be hidden for a certain period, until a specified date and time, or to wake every day, week or month, to act as reminders. Stickies can have alarms set to ensure you notice them at a point you choose Stickies can be transferred to and from your Palm or PPC PDA. International language support Stickies is small and simple, it writes to a single text file, and does not touch the registry ...and Stickies is completely free! FREE ON-LINE SUPPORT! Stickies website

So, what have I been up to? I'm currently in Spain for a few months before I return to Australia. I'm really looking forward to being back in Sydney again and perhaps I'll be moving there permantely... chessnia.com used to be visited by quite a number of people, but due to work committments and a problem with my forum's database, all data was lost a couple of years ago and I had to start from scratch. Nowadays I spend most of my time teaching on the internet, doing coaching at a local chessclub in my hometown, preparing new material for my students and for a new book, annotating games and improving my website adding more content and features. Which features? one of them is the forum's calendar: I'm adding all known Grandmasters birthdays as recurring events, and very soon you'll be able to tell on the spot which GMs (if any) were born on the same day as you. "Big deal!" I hear you say. True, on this specific task I only spend a few minutes a day, whilst I'm reading news or answering email. I actually enjoy most of the work that I do, which I guess is not a bad sign. And I'm also planning to update my blog very often. I nearly forgot, Happy New Year!

Ever need to call overseas? yes, I know VOIP (voice over IP) is a serious alternative to calling directly, but you need a microphone or one of those pc handsets and the quality is not very good. Recently I found out about Jajah. The great thing about this system is that a Caller simply types in his own number and his desired destination number in a Web form. The Jajah service first rings the caller. After the caller picks up the phone the destination number is then dialled and the connection is established. It does not require a broadband connection, nor is it necessary to be online when using the service, but it is necessary to have internet access to originate the call. But not just that. FREE CALLS BETWEEN USERS in certain countries. (Most of western Europe, USA, Australia, etc.) REALLY CHEAP SMS! I used to pay over a dollar for an international SMS, now it only costs me around 10 cents to any country in the world! Great rates when calling mobiles phones anywhere in the world. Click here to visit Jajah's website. Check what the wikipedia has to say about jajah.

Although I had been an Australian resident for aproximately 10 years after my arrival in Sydney back in 1982, I had my visa cancelled after not returning to Australia in the alloted 5 year period that I was given when I moved back to Spain. That was a long time ago... My mum, sister, brother and nephews all live here (Sydney, I mean) and got their Australian Citizenship long ago. I can speak the language, support myself, and had been offered a job. When I lodged my resident application 2 years ago I was quite confident that I would get it... But I was wrong! (and no, I have no criminal record, if you're wondering! ) I must confess that it did hurt a little. I don't know, perhaps I'm a bit simple minded... but I see a lot of people who get their resident visas and their baggage is basically language + job qualifications. Nothing wrong with that, but I was under the impression that I met those requirements also Also, I had defended "the flag" at 3 World Junior Championships and 1 Asian Junior. Although my performances had not been outstanding (3rd place in the Asian Junior was my best result), I had paid most of the expenses associated with those trips. I didn't expect any medals for that of course, but at least I hoped that it would give me better chances. Anyway, just a couple of days before my appeal dateline was about to expire, some good friends convinced me to pay the 1400$ fee and send my appeal. To be frank, I didn't think I had much of a chance after the initial rejection (and the fact that only around 10% of appeals are successful), so you can imagine my joy when a couple of months ago I got a letter from the Deparment of Immigration which contained the following line: "...I am pleased to advise you that your application has been approved and permanent visa granted to the following person: Javier Gil." I'ts taken two years. It's been a little hard. Hard but worth it, I guess... and I know because I still smile when I think about it. (oh, and yes, if you win the appeal you do get your money back )