<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener("load", function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <iframe src="http://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID=10056424&amp;blogName=ripero%27s+blog&amp;publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&amp;navbarType=BLUE&amp;layoutType=CLASSIC&amp;homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fripero.blogspot.com%2F&amp;blogLocale=en_GB&amp;searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Fripero.blogspot.com%2Fsearch" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" height="30px" width="100%" id="navbar-iframe" title="Blogger Navigation and Search"></iframe> <div></div>

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Migración

Después de tenerlo mucho tiempo abandonado, y utilizar esporádicamente un fotolog (concretamente éste), me paso a Wordpress... aunque tal vez debería decir que me paso a un wordpress.com ;-) . A partir de ahora me podréis encontrar en

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Growing Pains: Los Problemas Crecen

Now listening el ventilador del meu pc, encara estic tan sobat que em fa mandra buscar un CD decent

No hi ha dret. No té sentit. No ho entenc. És injust. Per què? Per què a mí?

Des del Nadal de l'any passat, tinc una tendència a tenir uns horaris xungos. No, no parlo de la facultat, palo de mi. He adquirit una habilitat innata (xDD) en llevar-me i anar-me a dormir a hores cada cop més rares.

La cosa acostuma a anar així: Un dia em llevo una mica més tard del normal (posem, les 11) o em vaig a dormir una mica més tard del normal (posem, les 3). Si no hi ha res urgent a fer a una hora determinada del matí, no em poso despertador. I com sóc incapaç d'adormir-me si no tinc son, si aquell dia no m'he cansat molt aguanto despert les meves 16 ó 18 hores, però necessito dormir-ne com a mínim 8. Total que al dia següent potser em llevo a les 13 i em vaig a dormir a les 4 ó a les 5. Aleshores m'acostumo a estabilitzar un parell de dies, dormint de 5 a 13 més o menys, fins que de sobte una nit em quedo fent alguna cosa fins més tard i em vaig a dormir a les 6 (a l'estiu, ja han cantat els ocells), i la propera potser passades les 7 (a l'estiu, ja ha sortit el sol). Cagada. Això vol dir que em llevo cap a les 15, i que haig de fer els àpats en un altre ordre: dinar, sopar i esmorzar. A més, de 7 a 9 no és gaire diferència, cada cop hi ha més llum, no hi ha ganes de ficar-se al llit. I acabo com avui: m'he ficat al llit a les 10 del matí, i m'he llevat a les 20 passades. Ja li he fet mitja volta a l'horari.

D'això, com collons se'n surt? La meva experiència (potser ja m'ha passat uns 7 ó 8 cops) és que tornar "cap enrere" és molt difícil. Vull dir, Anar-me a dormir abans i llevar-me abans. O dormir menys. Així que la solució acostuma a ser tornar "cap endavant": durant un parell o tres de dies, aguantar despert 20 hores o així i dormir-ne unes 10. Amb això es recupera un horari decent que permeti una bona convivència amb la societat, societat amb la que poc contacte he tingut durant el temps que ha durat això, que sol ser com a mínim una setmana.

Aquest cop, però, com a l'estiu de l'any passat, la cosa ha estat més llarga. Per què? L'estiu passat, bé, havia d'estudiar, i no ho se, però crec que m'era més fàcil estudiar de nit sense llum del sol que als matins, veient els bons dies que feia... Va ser el primer estiu de ma vida (que jo recordi, com a mínim des dels 3 ó 4 anys) sense platja ni piscina. Sense moreno. Vaja, una caca.

Però i aquest estiu? Bé, doncs la fase "estabilitzada" al voltant de les (aquest cop) 4:30 - 13:00 ha tingut un clar responsable (a part de l'estúpid d'un servidor, jo, no dels de 216.239.37.99). El culpable ha estat rtve. Sí, sí, Radiotelevisión Española. Bé, això i que el vídeo no em va bé i em fa mandra mirar què li passa. Les ments pensants de la televisió pública van, per un cop, tenir una bona idea: aquest estiu passarem per la2 una sèrie familiar, divertida, tot un clàssic dels anys 80: "Growing Pains" (aka "Los Problemas Crecen"). Qui no la recorda? El pare psiquiatra, la mare periodista, el fill petit golafre, la mitjana empollona i el gran, l'ídol dels joves de tota una generació. Total, que un dia la veus per la tele, i al dia següent hi tornes, i així de dilluns a dijous durant unes quantes setmanes. Què voleu que hi faci, em va tocar una fibra de infantesa, no he tingut germans, o algu, però em va enganxar.



I això què té a veure amb l'horari? Si us dic que feien els capítols de 4 en 4 i sense anuncis potser ho comenceu a sospitar. Doncs feien GP aproximadament de 2 i pico a 4 de la matinada. El típic horari per fer coses per a tots els públics, per a tota la família. No és conya, és veritat, la majoria de coses que fan a aquestes hores a les cadenes nacionals són molt més aptes que el que fan a les hores socialment "normals" de la tarda (tota una diversitat de formats que es poden englobar fàcilment en telebrossa, sempre respectant els dibuixos animats i els documentals).



Bé, i ara tornes a una vida normal perquè s'ha acabat la sèrie. Sí, això m'agradaria a mí... I un colló! De sobte, a meitat de la 5ena temporada (van gravar 7), quan el nadó comença a deixar de ser nadó però encara no surt el Leonardo DiCaprio, van i un dijous la deixen de fer. Vaig pensar, il.lús de mí, que seria una errada en la programació, però què va! Ahir tampoc la van posar, i avui tampoc la posaran. Així, pel morro, sense avisar als telediaris! Com gosen? Qui es pensen que són?

Primer vaig pensar que seria com Babylon5, o com Stargate a tvc (televisió de Catalunya), que només van comprar uns quants capítols i no et posen el final (Babylon5 sí que la van comprar sencera a tvc, me la vaig empassar sencera, suposo que ja parlaré de sci-fi algun altre cop, que ara només em queden uns 270 caracters left). Però no, jo recordo amb la meva memòria de llarg abast que vaig arribar a veure al Leo DiCaprio a la tele de petit, i a més - tot just ara m'ha vingut al cap - van reposar aquests capítols del Leo a rtve quan va fer Titànic per intentar pujar les audiències amb les típiques jovenetes histèriques de 15 anys.




En resum: sóc un teleaddicte asocial i començo a patir insomni.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

The Role of Fluctuations in Current Physics Research, with examples from Liquid Water, Econophysics, and Alzheimer's Disease

Avui H. Eugene Stanley, guanyador de la medalla Boltzmann 2004, ha donat una conferència a les 15:00 a la Sala de Graus Eduard Fontseré de la facultat. El títol: "The Role of Fluctuations in Current Physics Research, with examples from Liquid Water, Econophysics, and Alzheimer's Disease".

Bé, per començar, qui és aquest home? El cognom d'Stanley em sonava de l'últim curs de la llicenciatura, segurament un llibre recomanat a l'assignatura d'Ampliació de Física Estadística. Així que he pensat que devia de ser important, i més si li havien donat una medalla (la majoria de la gent no té medalles, i menys que no siguin posades per un mateix o pels amics...) Si n'era d'important, que després de la conferència un doctorand de matèria condensada m'ha dit que de tan bé que n'havia sentit a parlar es pensava que ja feia anys que era mort!!

A més, el títol prometia: semblava que seria força interdisciplinar, tot i que el meu camp de recerca semblava prou lluny.

Així que he decidit anar-hi. Problema: vint-i-cinc minuts abans que comencés la conferència encara no havia acabat de dinar, i estava amb uns amics que no veuré gaire-gens durant els propers 1-2 mesos prou lluny de la facultat. Després de rumiar-m'ho molt, i donat que no vaig a la majoria de conferències a les que representa que haig d'anar (les dels teòrics: masses strings i branes...) he decidit no esperar a les postres i fer per un cop el que se suposava que havia de fer.

He arribat just quan començava, i he trobat un dels darrers seients lliures. Guai. A més, l'home semblava (i és) simpàtic - tot i que a un dels acudits ha estat massa políticament incorrecte -. Però, al cap d'un quart d'hora (primera diapositiva no només de blablabla i hands waving) els ulls se m'han començat a aclucar, i he entrat a la pitjor fase de tot seminari (i més si és després de dinar): barallar-se amb les parpelles per mantenir els ulls oberts. Òbviament durant aquesta fase hi ha uns quants instants als quals els ulls veritablement es tanquen, el cap cau una mica cap endavant, i de sobte te n'adones i el cap torna a aixecar-se i tornes a obrir els ulls, i et fas la fatídica pregunta: he arribat a adormir-me? Això mai se sap, i tampoc és qüestió d'anar preguntant a la gent del teu voltant (potser també destorbes la seva migdiada), així que millor mirar endavant, intentar reincorporar-se a la conferència i fer com si no hagués passat res. Aquests fenòmens solen explicar els aparents buits mentals sobre la conferència.

En acabar la presentació, ha tingut lloc l'habitual ritual: aplaudiments, preguntes (de vegades amb respostes i tot), i el cansí "let's thank the speaker again". Queda bastant elegant que quan comencen els aplaudiments no estiguis encara adormit, i de fet la majoria de la gent té bastanta traça en espabilar-se als darrers vuit o deu minuts de la xerrada, bàsicament per sentir les conclusions i dur-se un bon record de l'acte (el que abans has estat somniant mai es farà realitat, no ho dubtis!).

Quan hem sortit de l'aula hi havia un petit refrigeri, que m'he encarregat que compensés les postres que no havia pres al dinar. De fet el soroll que fa el cambrer quan el prepara (també diria l'olor si aquell fluid negre viscós que diuen cafè fos cafè) acostuma a ajudar bastant a despertar la gent abans dels aplaudiments: tret de la singularitat de les primeres files de l'auditori, més properes al conferenciant, la majoria de la gent que semblava menys somnolenta al piscolabis s'havia assegut al costat de la porta durant la conferència.

Entre croissant i croissant he aprofitat per posar en comú les impressions sobre la conferència. Avui han estat especialment profundes. A part de l'abans esmentada sobre l'encara no defunció del conferenciant, hi puc destacar comentaris del següent estil

- Jo he vingut perquè venia l'Stanley, i semblava important. Tu també, oi? Era simpàtic, l'home.

- M'he hagut de posar a primera fila per poder veure, m'havia deixat les ulleres al despatx.

- Al final molt títol, però només ha parlat de l'aigua, i s'ha deixat la resta de temes (el comentari ha estat prou generalitzat com perquè sigui dubtós que tothom estigués adormit mentre explicava aquests temes, i casualment mig despert quan parlava de l'aigua).

- Com et cuides amb l'ensaïmada, tot i que jo ja n'he agafat unes quantes abans.


I tot això, per què? Doncs per guardar als nostres records, i presumir davant d'altres físics com nosaltres, que l'1 de juny del 2006 vàrem assistir a una conferència força interessant del medallista Boltzmann 2004 H. Eugene Stanley, un investigador amb grans visions multidisciplinars i un excel·lent ponent.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Old profile

It's been more than 9 months since I last edited this blog. Many things have changed since then, and even more since I wrote my first profile, which I will now almost completely rewrite:


Occupation: Senior Physics undergraduate student

About me: I am a 20 years old boy from Barcelona, Spain. I am in the last year of the Physics degree in the 'Universitat de Barcelona'. I hope to begin doctoral studies next year (if you can offer me a fellowship, please, contact me xD). I have also applied for being a Summer Student in CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) in Summer 2005 (what a great summer it would be!!). Concerning my non-academic interests, I enjoy listening to music a lot. I also play the piano and the violin. My other two great hobbies are books and go. I enjoy reading almost all kinds of books, although these last years I've had little time to read non-Physics related literature due to the difficulty of the degree courses. On the other hand, go is a thrilling intellectually-demanding two-player oriental board game. On personal grounds I am actually living with my parents, but I'd like to stop relying on them next year. What more can I say?... Well, I also have fun going out with my friends (who doesn't? :$). Ah, and these days I am not dating anyone: I am single and half looking :P. If you want to know more about me, just read my blog :D (don't be shy and post or e-mail anything you want to!).


There was not CERN at all. I managed to graduate in September. After that I began my graduate studies in the Advanced Physics programme at University of Barcelona, and I also began participating in the research of the Quantum Information and Computation group. I had a teaching assistant contract during the first semester, and since 1st April I am a FPU fellow.

During the Holy Week I had a little relax and reading, but I haven't still finished the Two Towers!! :'(

I also didn't play go with human opponents for many months. Some weeks ago I tried a comeback, but it won't last too much, I think.

On the other hand, I love music even more than I did a year ago. I think I have improved quite a lot my piano abilities... A month ago I began playing `Études' by Frédéric Chopin!! I have also begun assisting to some live classical music concerts, and I enjoy them a lot!

After summer my relationship with my parents recovered from all the stresses of the previous two years, so I still live with them, and I think this will go on at least until I doctorate. Maybe a stable enough girlfriend would make me change this belief, but since I haven't dated anyone since I wrote last year profile I seriously doubt about that. xD

Well, what more can I say? Now I have some more friends, some friends now are even better friends, the sun shines everyday (it's been a dry spring in Barcelona xD), life is good, and I am happy :) See you soon!!

P.S.: A week ago I began a photoblog, you may visit it at www.fotolog.com/ripero1984.

Monday, August 22, 2005

My Google Searches

As you may suppose, my favourite browser is Mozilla Firefox. You may think it reflects lack of personality, but I use as start page the default start page, which is just a firefox-adapted Google search page.

Today I happened to press the ArrowDown key when the cursor was in the search bar, and a menu with the first alphabetically ordered search queries was displayed. I was quite shocked by them:

  • Erik van der Werf: Well, it seems that I wrote a space before Erik, so that's why this is the first of the list. He is a researcher in Computer Go, and you may visit his homepage at the University of Maastricht.

  • Gradshteyn: The same as before applies. When Mathematica can't solve an integral, and you don't know any Russian matematician, you can only try something: look for a Russian book. Gradshteyn & Ryzhik's Table of Integrals, Series and Products has a spectacular review
    at amazon.

  • "I am Richard Stallman" GNU emacs: If you don't know who Richard Stallman is, I may pardon you someday, but not today. You probably have heard about an operating system called Linux... Well, some people argue that Linux is not an OS, that it is just the kernel. Stricto sensu, they say the OS is GNU (for Gnu's Not Unix). Anyway, Richard Stallman is the creator of GNU, the idea of free software. Feeling lucky with the words above you directly find the initial announcement of GNU (dated 27-Sep-1983), which is a must read for everybody.



  • ``Free software'' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ``free speech'', not ``free beer''.

  • "I would like to be Lorentz invariant": When you spend your summer studying Classical and Quantum Theory of Fields, you are susceptible of having such desires.

  • "I would like to be Poincaré invariant": The same as before applies, with d additional translational conditions.

My conclusion: I need a girlfriend.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Still alive

Good evening

I just wanted to say that I am still alive. Things didn't go too well last year, so I am taking 6 exams on September. I've been studying all summer, so I hope I'll pass all of them. I really must pass the exams, since I already have a position in a research group as a graduate student, and I should begin all the graduate stuff before October.

I suppose I'll begin writing on a regular basis some day. When that day will come, nobody knows, but considering I feel busier everyday... it may take some 40 or 50 years . Meanwhile, in case you feel bored, you may consider trying (do ( ) (( ))) (also known as Ruben Berenguel's blog) or goproblems.com.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Amazon order

Today I didn't go to class. I've been having a sore throat for some days, and today it was specially painful when I woke up, so I stayed in bed for all the morning.

In the afternoon I felt some kind of guilty, since during the last two weeks I couldn't go to even half of the classes I should. I hope this gets balanced somehow by spending some time ordering the books for the semester from Amazon. Here goes the list:

Yes, they are a lot of books, and some of them are quite expensive... So I must show my deepest gratitude to my parents, who made this possible!

I spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing the piano.

P.S.: Today I somehow faced the two main cons of stopping relying on my parents next year: the money for the things I enjoy and my piano.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

February holidays

Sorry for not posting in 3 weeks. There were a lot of things to do, and didn't have time to write.

The Swedish trip was nothing more than a dream. I would have had to sleep one or two nights in airports or bus stations, and I found this not too much enjoyable - the other option was paying ~490€ with Spanair, and I couldn't afford this -.

To avoid the disappointment, I tryied many other activities. Car driving by Catalonia was quite entertaining, and I seized the opportunity to visit some familiars and friends :D. Going shopping was also fun, and now I have some kind of renewed dressing style and I feel more comfortable with the clothes I wear.

I also attended to the Albert Einstein Day at the Facultat de Matemàtiques i Estadística of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. There were up to five conferences related to Einstein's life and research (2 exciting, 1 good, 1 acceptable and 1 boring scheduled at nap time). During the meal time I even played go with another assistant! In fact these days I've played go lot, not only at KGS but also with classmates and at IGS.

Finally, my last semester as an undergraduate began on 14th February. I am taking 5 new subjects, so I have a lot of classwork. This was in fact a study break, so... see you soon :-).

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Why English?

Mahler - Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor
When I decided to run a blog, one of the most difficult choices was the language (by the way, were there any other choices?).

My mother tongue is Spanish. The main reason is that my father is from Huesca and my mother's parents were from Burgos, and Spanish is the only language spoken in these regions. However, I live in Catalonia (aka Catalunya), where Spanish coexists with another language, called Catalan. I have also acquired proficiency in Catalan, since part of my education has been taught in this language, and many of my mates and friends usually speak this tongue. Finally, I began learning English when I was five, and I have some certificates from Cambridge which say that I am also proficient in English as a non-native speaker. (I won't make any comments about my French abilities... French is to English for me more or less like my violin is to my piano).

It would be easier for me to write in Spanish, or even Catalan. Then... why the hell am I writing in English? I thought more people would read the blog this way, but maybe more people around me would read it if it was in Spanish. Here I say Spanish because there is very few people that can read Catalan and not Spanish, whilst the opposite is false.

Well, I hope this answers the question. In any case, I may write in Spanish or Catalan if I feel like it. It is some kind of Thermodynamics of the human beings: laziness exists, and the arrow of time makes us tend to a state in which it is a maximum. If you didn't understand this last sentence don't panic: it's some kind of mad physicist's stuff.

I wish next post will be about a trip to Uppsala, Sweden. There's a good friend of mine who deserves a visit, but Swedish bus and train companies are making it difficult.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

The blog template

It's been more than 13 hours in a row, but I have finally adjusted the original template to one I don't dislike. Now colours are more vivid and links get bold when you place your mouse on them.

I've done it calmly, using it as an excuse to learn some HTML. Someone would say LaTeX is a stronger formatting language, but it lacks interactivity.

Well, with this I finish the technical stuff for some days. Now, let's enjoy the blog :P :D !