A friend of mine sent mi a link to the MySpace of this Spanish band today. I listened to some of their songs and I liked this song the most. Now I want to share it to others. Listen and enjoy some Spanish celtic pop/rock.

RETALES DE LA VIDA

De los retales de una vida,sale una canción,
y de los sueños rotos en el corazón
de ese amor perdido,del que no queda ya nada.

De las batallas perdidas,sale un ganador.
De las batallas ganadas,sale un perdedor.
De las sonrisas al viento,hay lágrimas derramadas.

Y los recuerdos al aire me besan la cara.
Sólo recuerdo lo bueno,de lo malo nada.
Aún queda tiempo pa´ el viento,vaya donde vaya,
y que me lleve volando,a tocar a otra guitarra.

De los grandes subidones,siempre hay un bajón.
De las grandes amistades,siempre hay un traidor.
De los acordes mayores, es el más grande y menor.

De las grandes ocasiones,alguna hay mejor.
De los grandes perdedores,hay un ganador.
De sí el mejor del equipo el latido del corazón.

Y los recuerdos al aire me besan la cara.
Sólo recuerdo lo bueno,de lo malo nada.
Aún queda tiempo pa´ el viento,vaya donde vaya,
y que me lleve volando,a tocar a otra guitarra.

Y los recuerdos al aire.
Sólo recuerdo lo bueno.
Aún queda tiempo pa´ el viento.
Y que me lleve volando,a tocar a otra guitarra.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/celtascortos

INSTABILE

from Nella Stanza 26 (In Room 26)(2006)
Lyrics and Music: Nek - Andrea Amati

Sai in questa vita tutto sembra breve,
anche i nostri momenti spesi insieme.
Dai camminiamo un po’: è tardi si, lo so,
ma non lo facciamo mai.

Sei la voce che nessuno sa ascoltare,
la luce del lampione in questo viale:
soffusa eppure c’è…ma resta qui con me:
sediamoci se vuoi.

E dimmi come stai e nei tuoi giorni cosa fai;
parlare è facile sotto questa finta luna.
Ed io ti ascolterò e se cadrai ti prenderò:
sei meno fragile dentro questa notte scura.

Sai, a volte penso che tu sia inerme
e tutto il mondo intorno ti sorprende
come questa neve che sta cadendo lieve
ma restiamo ancora dai.

E dimmi come stai e nei tuoi giorni cosa fai;
parlare è facile sotto questa finta luna.
Ed io ti ascolterò e se cadrai ti prenderò:
sei meno fragile dentro questa notte scura.
Mostrati e vedrai che nel tuo cielo volerai,
apri le ali e poi con un salto vola

E dimmi come stai e nei tuoi giorni cosa fai;
parlare è facile sotto questa finta luna.
Ed io ti guarderò e se vorrai ti seguirò
se sarai instabile tu non aver paura,
tu non aver paura
tu non aver paura

Translation: UNSTABLE

You know everything in this life seems short,
even our moments we spend together.
Let’s talk a walk: it’s late yes, I know,
but that doesn’t bother us.

You are the voice that no one can hear,
the light of the lamp in this street:
spread and yet it is…but stay here with me:
let us sit down if you want,

And tell me how you are and what you do in your days;
it’s easy to talk under this feigned moon.
And I listen to you and if you fall I will catch you:
you are less fragile in this dark night.

You know, sometimes when you are unarmed
and the entire world surprises you
like this snow which is falling lightly
but let us stay.

And tell me how you are and what you do in your days;
it’s easy to talk under this feigned moon.
And I listen to you and if you fall I will catch you:
you are less fragile in this dark night.
To show you and you’ll see that you’ll fly in you heaven,
open your wings and then fly with a jump

And tell me how you are and what you do in your days;
it’s easy to talk under this feigned moon.
And I will watch you and if you want I will follow you too
if you get unstable don’t be afraid,
don’t be afraid
don’t be afraid

VERTIGO

from En El Cuarto 26 (2007)
Spanish version of Instabile
Live recording here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX7XgJZSFSI

Ves todo parece breve en esta vida
escapan los momentos día a día
vente a caminar es tarde para hablar
quizás nos pueda ayudar

Tú, la voz que a mí me llama y nadie oye
la luz de este farol en nuestra calle
que luce pero es muy tenue a la vez
si quieres siéntate

Y dime como estás y cada día dónde vas
hablarte es fácil hoy que la luna no nos mira
y yo te escucharé y si te caes te ayudaré
la fuerza encontrarás dentro de esta noche oscura

Ves yo pienso que tú a veces seas inerme
y todo el mundo entero te sorprende
como está nieve que está cayendo leve
tú conmigo quédate

Y dime como estás y cada día donde vas
hablarte es fácil hoy que la luna no nos mira
y yo te escucharé y si te caes te ayudaré
la fuerza encontrarás dentro de esta noche oscura

Atrévete verás que por tu cielo volarás
abre tus alas y con un salto vuela
y dime como estás y cada día dónde vas
hablarte es fácil hoy que la luna no nos mira
y yo te miraré y si querrás te seguiré
si tendrás vértigo me quedaré contigo
allí estaré contigo
allí estaré contigo 

These are two blogs I am visiting at the moment. Both are written by Microsoft employees, a Swedish and an Italian. The swede and I have written to each other through Messenger (WLM/MSN) for quite a long time. I actually know him through his mother, who was teacher of mine. Though we never have met each other yet we still hope to do so next time he is in Sweden. The Italian guy is one of the best speakers at Microsoft, according to me. He has presented many of products (e.g. Linq) his team has been working with at various events. Cool Italian accent when speaking English.

Here’s the links!

Jesper Holmberg’s WebLog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jesperh/

Luca Bolognese’s WebLog: http://blogs.msdn.com/lucabol/

Pointers are very common and powerfull parts of programming languages such as C and C++. If you have never encountered pointers before (you are probably from the world of Java or .NET) you may ask “Why?”. Well, if you know an object-oriented language you may notice how you can use the pointers to simulate behaviours similar to reference types. Like reference types pointers “point” to a specific object, but through its address in memory.

In C and C++ you declare and use a pointer this way:

int a = 20;
int *p = &a;

printf("%d", p);

*p = 30; //Manipulating the value (*p)

printf("%d", *p); // Will print 30 to the console.

printf("%d", p); // Will print the address which the pointer points to (p)

I will now explain this fairly simple piece of code. We declare an integer (a) and give it the value 20. Nothing strange so far. Then we declare a pointer to integer variable. int* means pointer to integer. It is being initialized with the address of the integer (a) we declared. The address operator is & (read as address of). Later we starts to manipulate the memory through the pointer. Just notice the difference between *p and p (commented in the code). As it is shown both p and a are referencing the same memory. The power of pointers! But when you are getting more experienced and you are working with more advanced stuff you have to take responsibility. That will I talk about later in this blogpost.

A native string type does not exist in C, but you can simulate one with arrays or pointers. Yes, pointers. Take a look at the following example where a pointer to a character is initated with a string.

char *str;
str = "Hello, World!";

//This is similar to:
char[] strAr = "Hello, Second World!";

As I said before it is almost like OOP with reference types. You can point to primitive types and structures, and even functions. Function pointers are similar to delegates in C#, though delegates are type-safe and function pointers not. These are declared and initiated as in this example:

int (*Operation)(int OpA, int OpB);

static int Add(int OpA, int OpB)
{
      return OpA + OpB;
}

static int Sub(int OpA, int OpB)
{
      return OpA - OpB;
}

int Main(void)
{
      Operation = Add;
      int r1 = (*Operation)(2, 3); //5

      Operation = Sub;
      int r2 = (*Operation)(3, 2); //1

      return 0;
}

With these two types of pointers you can do a lot of cool and advanced stuff. One of the many common uses of type pointers are allocation and reallocation of memory. You do like this:

int *ptr = malloc(sizeof (int));

The argument of malloc is the size of memory you want to allocate.

Because you are allocating the memory the program cannot manage it for you. That is to say that if your program is ending you will have to reallocate the memory you have used. The memory will remain allocated if you do not do so. That makes exception handling very important in your program. The There are certain functions to reallocate or free occupied memory. The most simple are free which takes a pointer as an argument. It will automatically free the memory the pointer is referencing to.

     free(ptr);

Because of the pointers, languages like C and C++ are good for system- and hardware programming. If you for instance want to write a driver for a specific device, that is manipulating the hardware, you use pointers because they are able to manipulate memory and through it the basic parts of the computer. Pointers make C nearly as powerfull as assembler (machine language), as close to the hardware you can get.

This was a short introduction to pointers. There are many of ways of using them. It takes a lot of practice to master them without messing stuff up although they are easy to declare.

I just want to add that C# does have pointers although they are not common to use. They are mostly used in P/Invoke (platform invocation) to unmanaged native code in i.e. the Windows API. These parts are abstracted away by the managed OOP classes in the .NET Framework. You can still do some pretty advanced stuff with pointers but you do not need to, or rather you are encouraged not to use them, because they considered are unsafe. They are thereby against the principles of the CLI (Common Language Infrastructure). Java does currently not have pointers (no instructions for them). Maybe they will add support in the future, but who knows.

Thanks for reading.

This is another good song in Spanish. Listen to it here!

NOCHE DE FEBRERO

from En El Cuarto 26 (2007)

Quédate que es pronto para volver
y ves fuera del coche ya llueve y no para
y cada vez hay más ganas de una casa unas velas que enciendas tú
y nos den luz

Y como una ilusión que arrastra ríos de rencores tu eres
todo lo que puedo desear esplendida visión en un desierto
sin colores siento dentro escalofríos si tú estas

Abrázame y yo haré lo mismo
tómame que estoy indefenso y pienso
háblame de ti la vida que soñaste
era esta junto a mí, o quizás no? dime que si (no digas no)

Y como una ilusión que arrastra ríos de rencores tú
eres todo lo que puedo desear
esplendida visión en un desierto sin colores
siento dentro escalofríos si tú estas horas te hablaría
mientras el mundo gira no te dejare sola jamás
y tu cuerpo ahora todo el resto vuela

Y en la nada tú y yo
lejana una luz nos da poesía y llega el día

Y como una ilusión que arrastra ríos de rencores
tú eres todo lo que puedo desear esplendida visión en un desierto sin colores
siento dentro escalofríos si tú estas horas te hablaría 
mientras el mundo  gira no te dejare sola jamás
y tu cuerpo ahora todo el resto vuela

class HelloWorldApp
{
  method public static void main (java.lang.String[])
  max_stack 2
  {
    getstatic java.io.PrintStream java.lang.System.out
    ldc "Hello World!"
    invokevirtual void java.io.PrintStream.println(java.lang.String)
    return
  }
}

Common Intermediate Language, simply known as CIL, IL or MSIL (among the legacy coders). This is not to be confused with C Intermediate Language which is also abbreviated as CIL. CIL is a stack-based high-level assembly language which is used as an intermediate language by virtual machines such as the CLR (Common Language Runtime) and the Mono Runtime. It is because it has a fairly simple syntax that can easily be translated into native machine code. As a part of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI, a standard developed by Microsoft) it is the most significant piece of the .NET Framework, among others. Compilers which are written for the specific frameworks support the CLI standard and are translated to CIL. This can be done entirely or partially, like C++/CLI (which can mix it with native code). Because of that they can interop with other programs written in other CLI languages through the virtual machine. CIL is cross-platform and can be be executed on different machine architectures without being modificated or recompiled. The only thing that is needed is an implementation of the virtual machine targeting the specific processor and operating system. CIL is also, in many aspects, similar to Java bytecode which is executed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

CIL is stack-based, in difference to many native machine languages that are register-based. This means that everytime you want to manipulate an object (a type or an unit of code) you put it on the stack and call an op code (language instruction) that is performing an operation, i.g. adding two values. Thereby adding the two objects (Int32 or simply 32-bit integers) on the top of the stack and leaving the sum of those. The stack should be empty at the end of runtime. See the example.

IL:

ldc.i4.3 //Loads a constant in the stack
ldc.i4.2
add

Stack:

2 //Int32
3 //Int32

After the last operation (add) this will remain on the stack:

5 //Int32

If you had only one object on the stack and performed the add operation you would get a stack underflow.
The opposite is stack overflow that is caused by objects remaining on the stack in the end of the program. These errors are often caused by bugged compilers.

Some common op codes are:

ldstr "Kazoom" //Puts a string on the stack
ldarg.0 //Loads the method argument at the index 0 and puts it on the stack
ldc.i4.29 //Puts an integer, 29, on the stack
ldloca.s lcal //Loads a local (name lcal) an places it on top of the stack
call //Used when calling a method
newobj //Used when instanciating an object

// Arithmic operations that pops two values from the top of the stack.
add
sub
mul
div
mod

This is the most simple part of the CIL language. Because of the object-oriented nature of CLI you are able to use some OOP approach in your programming. Many of the constructs found in the programming languages at a higher level are represented directly as IL. For instance, a class declaration looks like this:

.class public MyClass
{

}

A class can be declared as static (non-instance class) with the static attribute static.

.class public static MyStaticClass
{

}

Classes contains methods defined this way:

.method Int32 Add(Int32, Int32)
{
      //Load both arguments on the stack and add them, then return the value.
      ldarg.0
      ldarg.1
      add
      ret
}

Likewise to classes, methods can also be marked as static.

This syntax, is like the class syntax, very similar to the C style. The only difference is the IL opcodes instead of ordinary statements. Another thing you must know is that methods always ends with a return statement even though they do not seem to return any value. In reallity theres a value, void. This will the runtime engine (virtual machine) handle for you.

To make a method the entrypoint of the program you add the .entrypoint attribute inside the method body. Notice that you can only have one entrypoint in a program.

Local variables (mostly refered to as locals) are also defined as attributes inside a method.

.locals init (
      [0] string str1
      [1] Int32 int1)

Those locals named by the compilers often have a random name consisting of letters and a number.

Because of performance there is also a .maxstack attribute which sets the maximum numbers of items on the stack. This tells the runtime engine that this method needs a stack of this size. Now is the virtual machine able to manage the amount of memory.

There are a lot of other things as well. I will not dig deeper into it because it is to much at a time. If you are familiar with a high-level language or any other stack-based and object-oriented intermediate language, like the Parrot Intermediate Language you, should understand the IL too.

Finally, this is the Hello World program in IL style. You can try to assemble it with ILASM (IL Assembler) ported with .NET Framework or Mono.

.method public static void Main() cil managed
{    
      .entrypoint    
      .maxstack 8    
      ldstr "Hello world!."    
      call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)    
      ret
}

This is a good song. It is actually inspired by The Police (Nek’s favorite band).

Lyrics:

Io oggi sto
per i cavoli miei
un perché non c’è
io ho staccato
già la spina e sono via
e che farò non so
mi lascio vivere
sdraiato nudo, così
e c’è chi solo non può
io invece no, io no, io no, io sto

solo
consideratemi sparito per un po’
ho cancellato questo giorno e gli altri no
e voglio scordarmi tutto
non fare nessun progetto
solo
consideratemi blindato a casa mia
sotto la doccia che i pensieri porta via
a cantare dietro la radio
o a fermare un’idea

e io così
mi ricarico un pò
si però
non è con voi che ce l’ ho
uno non è niente
se l’altra gente non si accorge che c’è
e ed io questo lo so
ma oggi no, io no io sto da

solo
consideratemi sparito per un pò
ho cancellato questo giorno e gli altri no
pensatemi che disegno
o semplicemente sogno
solo

e poi camminare scalzo
sui resti di un giorno perso
un morso di vita è andato via

solo
consideratemi sparito per un pò
ma non ci sto a guardare il mondo da un oblò
e voglio scendere per strada come sempre
cercare la gente

solo
consideratemi sparito per un pò
ho cancellato solo un giorno e gli altri no
che rinunciare neanche a un ora non si può
io no, io no.

Translation:

Today I will be
on my own
there is no reason why
I have already pulled out
the thorn and I am gone
and what I will do I do not know
I will let myself live
lying, naked like this
and there are those who cannot be alone
but not me, not me, not me, I am

alone
consider me all vanished for a little while
I have cancelled this day, the others not
and I want to forget about everything
not to work on any project
alone
consider me all shielded in my house
under the shower that takes away the thoughts
singing to the radio
or stopping an idea

and I, in this way,
recharge myself a bit
yes, but
it is not because of you
a person is not anything
if others do not take notice of him
and I know this
but today no, not me, not me, I am

alone
consider me all vanished for a little while
I have cancelled this day, the others not
think of me as I am drawing
or simply dreaming
alone!

and then walking barefoot
on the remains of a lost day
a bit of life has passed

alone
consider me all vanished for a little while
but I am not looking at the world out of a porthole
and I want to go into the streets like I always do
to look for people

alone
consider me all vanished for a little while
I have cancelled this day, the others not
it is not possible to renounce just one hour
not me, not me.

More lyrics at http://thebifurcationpoint.com/portal/nek/

Earlier this evening the Swedish national TV-channel SVT showed a documentary about a man called Klint-Olle. This man had tries to keep the traditions and live a simple life at his farm outside Delsbo in Hälsningland. It happens to be the place my father comes from.

Klint-Olle, who is in his 50s, is traditonal in that way that he tries to do as much as he can my hand, without machines. Even take care of his animals in way like they did it in former times. He is also a musician, he plays the accordion. The main questions in this documentary are “Is it possible to be different? What about tradition? Is society turning its back?”

Ten years ago he was accused of letting his animals suffer during some occasions. This despite taking care of them then the authorities came and took his cows. They where later killed although they were healthy. Since then has not had the right to have animals. This seems unfair to him, a man who wants to protect a lifestyle. He is still mourning for his cows.

We actually met Klint-Ole at a local event in Delsbo, where he was playing. My father talked to him and his friends. I guess it was about this.

I’m leaving for Delsbo with my family tomorrow. It is a half-day journey by car and I cannot wait until I meet my relatives, whom I have not met in two years.  

Link to the infopage

I watched the news on the TV two days ago and heard another report on the climate changes. This time it was about the interests in the arctic region. A lot of countries have showed interest in the region and hope to be able to use it when the ice has melted, for example to use petroleum and natural gas resources. Another thing is about transport, it will also be possible for transport ships to go to Asia via the passage.
It is estimated that most of the arctic ice will be gone in 10 - 20 years. And they hope that somebody will not make attempts to accelerate this.

Well, it sounds good from the economical point of view, but what about the climate then? The companies are waiting for the ice to disappear and they do not really care about the global warming, as long as it is good for their business. It is all about money, I know. They should not do like this because it is our obligation to take care of the Earth, our home. We should prioritise the Earth and its people. Some would say that it takes an economy to do so. That is true, but, I say but because I think that we should not expand our economy because we have found a way to do that now when the globe is getting warmer. Instead we should “try” to prevent the climate changes so that that it will not reach a state of world catastrophy.

We normal citizens that are not involved must tell the big guys to stop doing what they are doing.