17 September 1999 [previous September 1999 updates: 3 6 8 11 14]

1 - Hidden & Dangerous - Yugoslavia completed! [mission c2m5]

2 - Wedding!!!! [?!!?!]

3 - Take care of your PC!

4 - It rains! [raining pictures for the upcoming Lisbon portfolio]

You are there, now board the plane!

Unfortunately, there is only one way in, and it is on the other side; you are in deep trouble, as the pilot is accelerating the engines...

There he goes! Damn... It would be better for you to be INside the plane :)

H&D - Yugoslavia completed!

As previewed, it was fun and not too hard, to complete Hidden and Dangerous' [H&D] c2m5 mission - the last one @ Yugoslavia However, contrary to what I did assume, this mission is nearly impossible to complete with just one soldier. Enemies are coming from many sources and your goal is not just to wipe them out: you have to protect a plane, that will take off after some time short of its arrival. This means that you can't just find the best sniper view, or play Rambo with the nazis. Not only they are too much, but also Time fights against you!

For c2m5, I picked 3 soldiers, told two of them to guard the place where I knew the plane would land, then using my sniper, I placed myself in a spot from where I had a chance against the many upcoming enemies. It took some reloads, but it worked.

In fact, the hardest thing in c2m5 is catching the plane! The damn 4-engine-flying-thing only has one way in, and it is not easy to climb it... So, I bet that your hardest time will be getting your men on board.

After c2m5, you complete Yugoslavia and you enter Germany - a 6 mission episode! Things are getting much better.

The first mission @ Germany is "Fire Portal", and I almost completed it at my first attempt. As always, I am very unstylish - instead of following advises, I just go on cleaning enemies out of the scenery. And it does work :)

H&D has been a regular September presence. Check day 11 September 1999 for more about the Yugoslavia missions.

Oh, look - two dangerous criminals! Just kidding... she is his bride, and he is her fiancé!

More important, she is my cousin!

Wedding!

This weekend, I will be working as a photographer, @ my cousin's wedding! This means that probably there won't be any updates until monday or so, but that should be no reason for you not to visit my website! I bet you are yet to try most of the Tutorials, yet to read most of the Literary Documents, and yet to experiment most of the Computer Projects!

OK, let me tell you about the ones on your left. She is Teresa, aka Bé; and he is Miguel, aka... Miguel. They've been mentioned here before - check about the kart race, day 27 June 1999. They are nice people; at least much nicer than me :) and they will be marrying by the Catholic Church, which is something that I am not sure that I agree...*

I just wish them the very best there is in life: Love and Computers, sure. Now, on a more serious note - as if I was capable - I sincerely hope this couple to achieve whatever are their desires! I suppose this is a huge step in life, as you turn away from a relatively lonely existence, and embrace another being, as a new part of yourself.

If they authorize it, who knows, maybe I will host some pictures of the wedding.

*I think that I simply don't fancy Religion at all. To be honest, my actual position towards Religion - which may change - is that people only turn to it, when they are weak and suffering. In my humble opinion, Religion once was what people turned to, to explain what Science could not explain, and now is just another form of exploitation of the human being. Bah to exploitation!

However, I do believe in God...

Take care of your PC!

AVCS.268,273,276, BadCOM.458, BatCom.862, BAT.Baton.659 are strange names... Nowadays, computer viruses are born every hour and updated that often. This means that your lovely personal computer is always @ risk of severe infection. This risk is much more real than most users are willing to accept. The truth is that just by using out-of-date anti-virus software, such users believe that they will never face trouble... well, they couldn't be more wrong... and anti-virus don't necessarily help.

Current viruses fight for lifetime and not for damage scores. A virus author is more worried about the stealth abilities of his nasty software, than about how much damage it can do. High damage equates to high visibility and short lifetime. Unexpected, kind of harmless behaviors, are much harder to spot. So, your PC is probably hosting some infection, of the kind that makes your files grow 1 or 2 bytes, per save; or of the kind that changes files' date or location, randomly, and so on.

Your best weapon against this terrible scenario is using the most frequently update anti-virus software. My choice goes to AVP! Pay them a visit!, after all they've updated their virus tables, last day 14 September 1999.

Is it the moon? Is it not? Check the full picture, please.

With some sirens, it surely would look like Hill Street Blues :)

It rains

It rains in Lisbon. Guns n' Roses once sang "November rain", but it still is September...

Rain should never be a subject, but I can't resist the wet silence it brings to the city. Here are some pictures, just 2 or 3 minutes old. Click on them for their full quality version.

If you enjoy digital photography and want to check my sole digital manipulation to date, jump to day 25 August 1999.