My Personal Website https://www.medinas.org/ Recent content on My Personal Website My Personal Website https://www.medinas.org/papermod-cover.png https://www.medinas.org/papermod-cover.png Hugo -- gohugo.io Sun, 26 Nov 2023 14:03:00 +0100 My Setup. Early 2023 Edition. https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-11-26-setup_early_2023/ Sun, 26 Nov 2023 14:03:00 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-11-26-setup_early_2023/ Hardware Custom Desktop PC My current Desktop PC was assembled by me in 2021 shortly after the release of the Ryzen Zen 3 Generation. Replacing my old Intel i6700k which was showing signs of age on recent games. The Idea behind this computer is to be a Gaming PC and a general Workstation. Components: AMD Ryzen 5800X MSI Trio OC NVidia RTX 4090 32GB DDR4 1TB NVME 1TB SSD 1TB HD ASUS MB B550 Gaming Pro Wifi Gigabyte M27Q Monitor Samsung 27" C27H Quantum Dot The Ryzen is a great processor, it runs very efficiently in both idle and high load with lot’s of cores. Hardware

Custom Desktop PC

My current Desktop PC was assembled by me in 2021 shortly after the release of the Ryzen Zen 3 Generation. Replacing my old Intel i6700k which was showing signs of age on recent games. The Idea behind this computer is to be a Gaming PC and a general Workstation.

Components:

  • AMD Ryzen 5800X
  • MSI Trio OC NVidia RTX 4090
  • 32GB DDR4
  • 1TB NVME
  • 1TB SSD
  • 1TB HD
  • ASUS MB B550 Gaming Pro Wifi
  • Gigabyte M27Q Monitor
  • Samsung 27" C27H Quantum Dot

The Ryzen is a great processor, it runs very efficiently in both idle and high load with lot’s of cores. This PC runs Windows 11 for now. When I need a development environment i most of the times use Ubuntu on WSL2 or VirtualBox no need so far to use on Dual Boot.

Macbook Pro 2020 Apple M1

This is our family computer, we use it for Facetime, Surfing on the Web, Writing, Music Production and of course Coding. It’s a terrific device, great Battery life, typical MacOS Unix-like features and the processor is amazing. Plus being able to run iOS apps its for me a no Brainer. This is one of my most used devices and I love it.

iPad Air 2021 Apple M1

Used mostly by the Kids to play some Minecraft or watch Videos. Its also used by me to read, write and go through Doom Scrolling on X or Mastodon. It’s fast and very eficient. It replaced our iPad Air 2 as it went out of support last year, this was one of the best devices i owned. The iPad Air is just like it’s predecessor, superb.

iPhone 8

Got it some years ago for a good price, new. Does its job, works great no major performance issues and good camera. My only issue is the Battery life.

Apple Watch Series 5

I was never a person who used Watches. But when Apple released the Apple Watch i said, when it will become mature and got the first major hardware update, i will get one. I bought it a few days after its available and i used it everyday since. I like to track my heartbeats, fitness, watch weather and random Timers. In addition the integration in Apple ecosystem is great as expected.

I love it!

Raspberry PIs

Steam Deck

Some short review. It’s a great device, current generation games like Doom Eternal and Elden Ring run great. It’s truly the year of Linux Desktop!

Misc Devices

PS4

Got it around in 2012. Worked great for casual gaming but games but running 1080p on 30FPS (rarely 60fps) and PSN was just too expensive. Its still used for casual CO-OP gaming. Might migrate to Steam Deck for CO-OP.

iMac 27" late 2012

Was my main Desktop back in 2013-2016 but it was somehow underpowered for its great 27" Display. Games were not running well and HD drive was too slow. Today it’s rarely used, HD its incredible slow to even boot Mac Os Catalina. It’s about to be retired. Basically the Macbook Pro is the replacement of this iMac.

Software

OS

  • Windows 11
  • MacOS
  • iOS / iPad OS
  • Linux (Steam Deck, Virtual Machines, RPIs and WSL)

Apps

  • Browsers: mostly Brave but on Apple devices Safari works better. I gave up Firefox some time ago, i was mostly using in the last few years just for the cause.
  • Editors: Currently Neovim. For years i’ve used Sublime Text and long time Emacs user, i love Emacs but i realized by the size of my .emacsrc something wasn’t right.
  • Mail: Most of the time, Webmail and in some rare cases Apple Mail.
  • Other Apps: Mainly I waste my time on Signal, WhatsApp, Facetime, X/Twitter, Mastodon and Steam.
  • Recording Music: I use both Neural DSP Fortin Cali and Neural DSP Archtype Petrucci. Both are terrific but the Fortin is the one i use most of the time. It’s incredible how good amp sims sound nowadays, out of the box sounds as good if not better than my Tube amps. As DAW i use Reaper.
]]> Notes for 16-04-2023 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-04-16-notes_of_the_day/ Sun, 16 Apr 2023 22:55:00 +0700 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-04-16-notes_of_the_day/ Woke up, had breakfast, catch up with Mastodon. Installed Linux on my main Desktop. Somehow due to the dual partition setup with UEFI the bootloader got broken. Last lunch with my mom, she is returned back home today. Drove her to airport. Felt alright but the airport was too crowded and it was rather confusing to me to see so much people. Back home, repaired the bootloader on my Main Desktop PC, still not happy with the setup.
  • Woke up, had breakfast, catch up with Mastodon.
  • Installed Linux on my main Desktop. Somehow due to the dual partition setup with UEFI the bootloader got broken.
  • Last lunch with my mom, she is returned back home today.
  • Drove her to airport. Felt alright but the airport was too crowded and it was rather confusing to me to see so much people.
  • Back home, repaired the bootloader on my Main Desktop PC, still not happy with the setup. I will revisit this problem later next week. Still not convinced if i really need a standalone Linux on my Main Desktop. I’m pretty much happy with Virtualbox and WSL2.

    • Mood: Good.

    Music/TVShows/Internet highlights: None.

    ]]>         Notes for 15-04-2023 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-04-15-notes_of_the_day/ Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:34:01 +0700 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-04-15-notes_of_the_day/ Wake up relatively late. Read some articles about AI, watched some Youtube videos about the matter. Lunch with family. Tried a nice red wine, which was a gift from a Friend. Played my 7-String guitar. Random riffs, pratice some solos. Went to Supermarket with my wife. We made a short trip around to get some fresh air. Played some PUBG and CSGO while streaming on Twitch. Collected and uploaded to Youtube some of my gaming Highlights.
  • Wake up relatively late. Read some articles about AI, watched some Youtube videos about the matter.
  • Lunch with family. Tried a nice red wine, which was a gift from a Friend.
  • Played my 7-String guitar. Random riffs, pratice some solos.
  • Went to Supermarket with my wife. We made a short trip around to get some fresh air.
  • Played some PUBG and CSGO while streaming on Twitch.
  • Collected and uploaded to Youtube some of my gaming Highlights.

    • Mood: Positive/Good. Want to spend the last day with my mom while she visited us.

    Music/TVShows/Internet highlights:

    • Read some AI articles and Videos.
    • Random blog posts.
    ]]>         Notes for 14-04-2023 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-04-14-notes_of_the_day/ Sat, 15 Apr 2023 01:10:00 +0700 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-04-14-notes_of_the_day/ Woke up early, slept well but not long. Appointment to check my eyes and vision due to often eyes burning and small headaches. No issues observed, which means I don’t need glasses. Burning eyes might be due to lack of humidity in the eyes which could be caused by multiple factors (i.e dry air). short break to to play Hunt:Showdown. Visit the Doctor to see how I feel. Lunch with family.
  • Woke up early, slept well but not long.
  • Appointment to check my eyes and vision due to often eyes burning and small headaches. No issues observed, which means I don’t need glasses. Burning eyes might be due to lack of humidity in the eyes which could be caused by multiple factors (i.e dry air).
  • short break to to play Hunt:Showdown.
  • Visit the Doctor to see how I feel.
  • Lunch with family. Took some time to check Mastodon and Twitter.
  • A new book arrived: Ghost in the Wires from the one and only Kevin Mittnick. Might start to read it this weekend.
  • Took a nap and tried to finish Zakk Wylde’s book.
  • Dinner. Today we ordered Pizza!
  • Catch up with family.
  • Gaming time: CSGO with friends..

    • Mood:

    • Very Positive, lot’s of plans for next weeks. Thinking that i will start working again next Monday.

    Music/TVShows/Internet highlights:

    • Been listening to Whitechapel, Deftones and Stone Sour.
    • Catching up with Mastodon, Twitter and some Forums. Avoided Reddit.
    • Chatting with friends on Discord.
    • Checking Elon Tweet regarding his interview with BBC.
    ]]>         My first COVID episode https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-01-30-covid_first_episode/ Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:28:34 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2023-01-30-covid_first_episode/ I fought very hard to avoid COVID-19, so my family did, but inevitably hit us at the end of 2022. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3 years ago, we carefully avoided crowded places to avoid higher transmission, we used masks religiosity and disinfected groceries and hands. Of course through the time we got fully vaccinated, the restrictions started to relax more and more until we were basically one of very few people still using masks on supermarkets. I fought very hard to avoid COVID-19, so my family did, but inevitably hit us at the end of 2022. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3 years ago, we carefully avoided crowded places to avoid higher transmission, we used masks religiosity and disinfected groceries and hands.

    Mask

    Of course through the time we got fully vaccinated, the restrictions started to relax more and more until we were basically one of very few people still using masks on supermarkets. Then sadly shortly after Christmas i started to feel slightly sick, promptly performed a test and went immediately positive.

    Symptoms

    The first symptom was pain all over my body: arms, legs, hands and back. Then I started to feel my throat sour and cough and a few hours later in the evening fever around 37.8 degrees Celsius. At the same time i felt incredibly tired and weak, even on the way to my home studio through my home stairs I felt tired. These were basically the symptoms for 3 days, on the 4th day I stopped having fever and sour throat and kept the pain around the body.

    During the time with COVID, I took the usual Paracetamol against fever and ate lot’s of Fruit and vegetables.

    COVID

    Post COVID

    Eight days after the first positive Test, I tested myself again and finally went negative while still keeping incredibly tired, coughs and less muscle pain. Those symptoms hit me for another week, then slowly all symptoms started to disappear and back then only cough remained a few weeks longer.

    After COVID I was concerned regarding the effects of LongCovid but fortunately so far I didn’t have any effect and I hope it remains like this.

    After having heard from some people that COVID “is just a like a simple flu” I can certainly say, it’s definitely NOT! After all this experience and with the increase of health risks caused by COVID re-infections I will continue to use Mask wherever I can and will do whatever I can to avoid COVID again.

    ]]>         My most listened Music in 2022 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-12-17-music_heard_in_2022/ Sat, 17 Dec 2022 21:07:02 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-12-17-music_heard_in_2022/ In 2022 was for me the year where i refined my music tastes and deep dived into Blues Rock and a small incursion into Technical Death Metal while returning to my usual Metal / Hard Rock genre. Blues Rock I listened to Jimi Hendrix a lot in the past, of course its a huge influence for any modern guitar player and i really enjoy playing his songs on my Strat. This year i deep dived into his “cleaner” songs such like Little Wing, Castles made of Sand, Like a Rolling Stone (live at Monterey) Bold as Love Red House, The Wind cries Mary and Voodoo Chile (Blues version). In 2022 was for me the year where i refined my music tastes and deep dived into Blues Rock and a small incursion into Technical Death Metal while returning to my usual Metal / Hard Rock genre.

    Blues Rock

    Hendrix

    • I listened to Jimi Hendrix a lot in the past, of course its a huge influence for any modern guitar player and i really enjoy playing his songs on my Strat. This year i deep dived into his “cleaner” songs such like Little Wing, Castles made of Sand, Like a Rolling Stone (live at Monterey) Bold as Love Red House, The Wind cries Mary and Voodoo Chile (Blues version). Any of these songs are absolutely masterpieces.

    • Stevie Ray Vaughan another Blues legend which died too early but left imense brilliant songs and performances. This year i listen in particular to Texas Floods, Voodoo Child (Slight Return), Cold Shot and Lenny.

    • ZZ Top album La Futura from 2012 is a great album, at the same level as early Eliminator and Tres Hombres. Highly recommended!

    • Philip Sayce is for me one of the best modern Blues Rock legends. His playing style is amazing and his songs remind of a modern rockier version of Hendrix, SRV and many other Blues Legends.

    • Now going into traditional Blues, Muddy Waters is my all time favorite and the real King of Blues. This year i saw many times his performance with the Rolling Stones.

    • I also really enjoyed and watched Davey Bones posts on Instagram about his Vintage gear and his renditions of Blues Classics. Great Production. Keep Rocking dude!

    • Robin Trowner Bridges of Sight its another Blues masterpiece that i listened a lot.

    • Honorable mentions: Jonny Winter, Eric Clapton, JJ Cale and Eric Gales

    Technical Death Metal

    I was never a big fan of Death Metal, i always felt the style a bit shallow, tasteless and lyrics without interest. Exception for me was always Children of Bodom which is one of my favorite Bands ever but it can hardly classified as traditional Death Metal but more like a Pop Melodic Death Metal band. This year i decided to give another try and focus on the more Technical/Progressive side of the genre and i quiet enjoyed the bands mentioned below.

    Necrophagist

    • Necrophagist, this band and the music done by the band members is extremely complex and has lots of influences from Classical and Jazz. The songs on the album Epitaph are like travels into lots of different music styles, with lots music complexity taking into an extreme while having the traditional Death Metal base sound. Its quiet hard to express how complex the sound is.

    • Obscura, a band which reminds me of Necrophagist, even some members used to play on this band. The songs are amazing, following also influences from Classical music. I’m only not totally convinced on the vocals which are maybe to extreme/harsh for me.

    • Death, the album The Sound of Perserverance the final album of their career is a masterpiece.

    Honorable mentions: Bloodbath and Lorna Shore

    General Metal / Hard Rock

    Zakk Wylde

    nothing new, i just enjoyed the little time i have to enjoy music to hear again some of my favorite bands and artists. Some highlights.

    • Zakk Wylde / Black label Society, one of my all time favorite guitar player. I listen to a lot of Pride and Joy his band from the 90s where he wrote some great Southern rock style music. Solo album Book of Shadows and the last BLS albums Doom Crew Inc and Grimmest Hits

    • Dream Theater Awake, my all time favorite DT album. I love those 7-String guitar riffs.

    • Fear Factory. Demanufacture and Obsolete are amazing albums i think this band was quiet underrated during the Nu Metal Boom in the early 2000s.

    Honorable mentions: Mastodon and Nevermore.

    ]]>         My Steam Deck review after one Month from Twitter https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-12-steam_deck_review_after_1mo/ Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:27:45 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-12-steam_deck_review_after_1mo/ Great device overall, everything Linux Desktop could dream off, 2022 is really the year of Linux Desktop!

    Great device overall, everything Linux Desktop could dream off, 2022 is really the year of Linux Desktop!

    ]]>         Resume of what happen on this week with Cryptocurrency https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-12-resume_of_this_week_crypto/ Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:27:45 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-12-resume_of_this_week_crypto/ …and more still to happen with further reprocursions cause by this disaster. This will take take many people out of cryptos and reduce the trust on Exchanges.

    …and more still to happen with further reprocursions cause by this disaster. This will take take many people out of cryptos and reduce the trust on Exchanges.

    ]]>         B Standard nice Metal Riffs https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-11-b-standard_metal_riffs/ Fri, 11 Nov 2022 00:16:43 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-11-b-standard_metal_riffs/ A cool video from the one and only NikNocturnal A cool video from the one and only NikNocturnal

    ]]>         Current Music inspiration 07.11.2022 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-07-current_music_inspiration/ Mon, 07 Nov 2022 23:29:17 +0100 https://www.medinas.org/posts/2022-11-07-current_music_inspiration/ Nevermore Black Label Society … or really anything Zakk Wylde played Necrophagist Nevermore

    Black Label Society

    … or really anything Zakk Wylde played

    Necrophagist

    ]]>         About https://www.medinas.org/about/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.medinas.org/about/ Notice: Updated on 20.11.2022. I’m an Engineer who loves to Tech and tries to build great systems. All my life I was some way or another always involved with Technology. With a very early age my parents got an Amiga 500 and together with watching Back to the Future changed my life and I knew exactly what I wanted to do from those moments onwards. My Alma Mater is the University of Aveiro where I got a Masters in Physics Engineering. Notice: Updated on 20.11.2022.

    I’m an Engineer who loves to Tech and tries to build great systems. All my life I was some way or another always involved with Technology. With a very early age my parents got an Amiga 500 and together with watching Back to the Future changed my life and I knew exactly what I wanted to do from those moments onwards. My Alma Mater is the University of Aveiro where I got a Masters in Physics Engineering. I have 2 lovely kids and married to a beautiful wife.

    Professional Work

    Currently i work as Project Lead at Volkswagen AG. In the past i worked at:

    Tech Work

    I was a teenager when i found about Linux and Open Source, which I immediately felt in love about the phylosophy and the power of the ecosystem. Afterwars I became a community member and made several contributons to many FOSS Projects such as: GNOME, Gentoo and OpenSUSE.

    Hobbies

    To abstract from my Work and have some good quality time, I like to play Guitar, Play Video Games and Thinkering on my Computers/Systems. I like Coding.

    Guitar

    I have a bunch of guitars, amps and effects which i acquired through the years. My favorite amp all time is probably the Marshall JCM 800.

    I really enjoy playing Blues, Hard rock and several Metal styles.

    Games

    Currently, due to lack of free time, i play occasionally CS2, DiabloIV on my **PC, PS5 or Steam Deck. In the past I had a really good time playing:

    • World of Warcraft
    • World of Tanks
    • Soulsborne series
    • Metro series
    • Fallout NV, 4 and 76
    • The Witcher 3
    • Americas Army
    • DOOM series
    • CyberPunk 2077
    ]]>         New Tab https://www.medinas.org/newtab/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.medinas.org/newtab/ Remember back in the day, many personal websites had Links ? So here’s some of Websites I read and follow: Search and Social DuckDuckGo Google Youtube Twitter Reddit Ecosia Blogs and News Hacker News Daring Fireball Stratechery Slashdot Daniel Miessler My Old Wordpress Blog Code GitHub Vim Tips Wiki Emacs Docs Rust Docs Python Docs DevTo Apple Docs MDN Media Netflix Misc Decrypt Ultimate Guitar Guitar World Remember back in the day, many personal websites had Links ? So here’s some of Websites I read and follow:

    Search and Social

    DuckDuckGo

    Google

    Youtube

    Twitter

    Reddit

    Ecosia

    Blogs and News

    Hacker News

    Daring Fireball

    Stratechery

    Slashdot

    Daniel Miessler

    My Old Wordpress Blog

    Code

    GitHub

    Vim Tips Wiki

    Emacs Docs

    Rust Docs

    Python Docs

    DevTo

    Apple Docs

    MDN

    Media

    Netflix

    Misc

    Decrypt

    Ultimate Guitar

    Guitar World

    ]]>         Setup https://www.medinas.org/mysetup/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.medinas.org/mysetup/ Notice: This page is being updated regularly. Posts reflect snapshots of this page for history purposes. Hardware Custom Desktop PC My current Desktop PC was assembled by me in 2021 shortly after the release of the Ryzen Zen 3 Generation. Replacing my old Intel i6700k which was showing signs of age on recent games. The Idea behind this computer is to be a Gaming PC and a general Workstation. Components: Notice: This page is being updated regularly. Posts reflect snapshots of this page for history purposes.

    Hardware

    Custom Desktop PC

    My current Desktop PC was assembled by me in 2021 shortly after the release of the Ryzen Zen 3 Generation. Replacing my old Intel i6700k which was showing signs of age on recent games. The Idea behind this computer is to be a Gaming PC and a general Workstation.

    Components:

    • AMD Ryzen 5800X
    • MSI Trio OC NVidia RTX 4090
    • 32GB DDR4
    • 1TB NVME
    • 1TB SSD
    • 1TB HD
    • ASUS MB B550 Gaming Pro Wifi
    • Gigabyte M27Q Monitor
    • Samsung 27" C27H Quantum Dot

    The Ryzen is a great processor, it runs very efficiently in both idle and high load with lot’s of cores. This PC runs Windows 11 for now. When I need a development environment i most of the times use Ubuntu on WSL2 or VirtualBox no need so far to use on Dual Boot.

    Macbook Pro 2020 Apple M1

    This is our family computer, we use it for Facetime, Surfing on the Web, Writing, Music Production and of course Coding. It’s a terrific device, great Battery life, typical MacOS Unix-like features and the processor is amazing. Plus being able to run iOS apps its for me a no Brainer. This is one of my most used devices and I love it.

    iPad Air 2021 Apple M1

    Used mostly by the Kids to play some Minecraft or watch Videos. Its also used by me to read, write and go through Doom Scrolling on X or Mastodon. It’s fast and very eficient. It replaced our iPad Air 2 as it went out of support last year, this was one of the best devices i owned. The iPad Air is just like it’s predecessor, superb.

    iPhone 8

    Got it some years ago for a good price, new. Does its job, works great no major performance issues and good camera. My only issue is the Battery life.

    Apple Watch Series 5

    I was never a person who used Watches. But when Apple released the Apple Watch i said, when it will become mature and got the first major hardware update, i will get one. I bought it a few days after its available and i used it everyday since. I like to track my heartbeats, fitness, watch weather and random Timers. In addition the integration in Apple ecosystem is great as expected.

    I love it!

    Raspberry PIs

    Steam Deck

    Some short review. It’s a great device, current generation games like Doom Eternal and Elden Ring run great. It’s truly the year of Linux Desktop!

    Misc Devices

    PS4

    Got it around in 2012. Worked great for casual gaming but games but running 1080p on 30FPS (rarely 60fps) and PSN was just too expensive. Its still used for casual CO-OP gaming. Might migrate to Steam Deck for CO-OP.

    iMac 27" late 2012

    Was my main Desktop back in 2013-2016 but it was somehow underpowered for its great 27" Display. Games were not running well and HD drive was too slow. Today it’s rarely used, HD its incredible slow to even boot Mac Os Catalina. It’s about to be retired. Basically the Macbook Pro is the replacement of this iMac.

    Software

    OS

    • Windows 11
    • MacOS
    • iOS / iPad OS
    • Linux (Steam Deck, Virtual Machines, RPIs and WSL)

    Apps

    • Browsers: mostly Brave but on Apple devices Safari works better. I gave up Firefox some time ago, i was mostly using in the last few years just for the cause.
    • Editors: Currently Neovim. For years i’ve used Sublime Text and long time Emacs user, i love Emacs but i realized by the size of my .emacsrc something wasn’t right.
    • Mail: Most of the time, Webmail and in some rare cases Apple Mail.
    • Other Apps: Mainly I waste my time on Signal, WhatsApp, Facetime, X/Twitter, Mastodon and Steam.
    • Recording Music: I use both Neural DSP Fortin Cali and Neural DSP Archtype Petrucci. Both are terrific but the Fortin is the one i use most of the time. It’s incredible how good amp sims sound nowadays, out of the box sounds as good if not better than my Tube amps. As DAW i use Reaper.
    ]]>