Yearly Archives: 2012

Para acompanhar um jantar com os tomates, o pimento e a salsa da nossa varanda, nós ainda colhemos estes

Cette mois on a eu une agréable surprise que confirme que le propriétaire de notre immeuble et la régie sont  tout à fait justes.

Notre loyer est indexé au  Indice des prix à la consommation Suisse et le contrat stipule qu’il peut avoir au maximum une augmentation par année. En juillet de 2011 on reçoit une augmentation de 21 Fr./mois de notre loyer avec l’augmentation de 1,24% de l’indice.

Cet année, vu la constante baisse des prix à la consommation en Suisse, on a tout de suite au début de juillet écrit à notre régie pour demander la baisse du loyer. On pensait aller tomber dans une réponse quelconque limitant cette baisse. Quel était notre agréable surprise quand ils nous répondent que le propriétaire a bien accepté notre demande de baisse de loyer de 1,05%, tel comme le indice des prix à la consommation. 

On a aujourd’hui reçu la feuille officiel de ce changement. Il est intéressant de percevoir que le texte ne prévoit pas des baisse de loyer, étant rédigé “En application de l’art. 26d al. 1 CO, nous vous communiquons la hausse de loyer suivante :”.

Vélo Chic Genève, originally uploaded by miguelanjo.

Last Sunday was the 3rd Vélo Chic at Geneva. Many participants and an occasion to play with photos.

The whole album at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/miguelanjo/sets/72157630031404947/show/

Yesterday I’ve created the mobile version of my page. Hope it also works well on iPhones.

I never used the “MegaUpload” site. But time to time I use torrents. Not because I consider that rights should not be paid to the producers. The reason is that there is no easier option. Even if I’m willing to pay.

These days I wanted to see two movies:
– review Nueve Reinas (2000), which I saw in cinema years ago
– Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939), which I miss in a movie festival last week.

First I tried the public library, but the movie (Nueve Reinas) was lost even if it appeared in the catalog. Then I try to search a legal Video-on-Demand (VOD) offer. None has those movies available. As last resort I search the torrent and in less than one hour I’ve the movie and subtitles downloaded with reasonable quality. Faster than going to the library.

Read an article in the newspaper while ago about the lack of offer by VOD sites. It said that due to the “rights” they cannot offer the movies:
– in other countries than where the VOD site is placed
– before they leave the cinemas in the country (about 1 to 2 months)
– after the movie is queue for TV transmission (after 6 months of cinema release).

This means that VOD sites currently offer movies during 4/5 months and then they have to remove them from catalog for another while. Then I’ve the unluck not to like blockbusters and the offer squeezes even more.

The torrent offer allows me to pass all this. I think the “MegaUpload” site was similar, but more for TV series.

And more cynical on all this is that the US government runs behind sites that offer these sharing solutions, while are their own citizens the biggest users of them. My idea would be to oblige the producers to increase legal offers and decrease the “rights” limitations based on the countries and where the movie is also displaying. Below my “peers” when downloading the “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”:

• The iPad2 was 33% thinner than the predecessor.
• The iPad3 is 7% thicker than the predecessor.
• The iPad 2 was 0.2 pounds lighter than the predecessor.
• The iPad3 is 0.1 pound heavier than the predecessor.

It the new iPad really better than the predecessor?

Data from: http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/