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Saw this statistics today, and thought I could share with you:

• Mac OS Lion (10.7) sold on the first day, more than a million copies. Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6) took a full weekend to sell 2 million copies, while Mac OS Leopard (10.5) took an entire month to sell the same amount.

• Google+ registered 20 million users on the first 3 weeks. Facebook took a year to have the same number of users. Meanwhile, Twitter got it after 2 long years.

(Source: Gizmodo)

Some months ago I started thinking I should get a “new face” for myself, a new identity to be used both on personal and business matters. So I approached Emanuel Sá, good friend of mine. Logos aren’t his biggest talent, but I enjoyed the final result.

I wanted something really abstract, and most of all simple. This redesign was actually finished some months, but I only completed the entire identity set (logo, Curriculum Vitae, cards…) this last week with the arrival of my new business cards:

I didn’t know where to order them and as I got some positive feedback over at moo.com, I decided to give them a go. I’m actually really pleased with their quality, their service and their price! Even though I don’t have a lot planned (project-wise), because of the Airline Pilot course I’m taking, I really enjoy having this new personal identity!

It’s with extreme sadness that I write this blog post a few hours after the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final match between Germany and Spain.

Before the beginning of this World Cup I didn’t really believe on the German efforts to reach something significant this year (and believe me, I’m the biggest Mannschaft supporter you can ever find). However, after watching the first match against Australia, I though there were some chances to reach a good position during this first World Cup in African territory.

It didn’t go that well against Serbia, but I must confess we were extremely unlucky during the entire match. Nevertheless, I believe the qualification to the final 16 was done with no additional problems. After this first stage, I knew things weren’t going to be easy: England at first and probably Argentina next, it was going to be tough. It was just amazing: simply a mind-blowing 8 goals against those amazing national teams. Specially against Argentina, the Mannschaft really demonstrated amazing creativity, tactical awesomeness and a giant willing to get through the finals.

There was only a final step to reach the final, though. It was Spain, the same team which defeat Germany on the Euro 2008 Championship. However, this German team was much better this time, and was having quite good chances to go on. We knew Spain is a team who likes to keep the ball, and that would difficult life to us. It could be also positive, because Germany is amazing counter-attacking and this could be critic to the match.

Well, the game is now over and Spain went through. Their ball possession and their luck put them on the final against the Netherlands. I’m really disappointed that we didn’t get the change to be discussing the final, because we really deserved with everything we’ve done during this World Cup. Unfortunately, it has to discussed within 90 minutes, and we weren’t that good this time.

I couldn’t finish this without saying that I’m proud of all the German players that gave their best, it is always an honor to support this team. We’ll get the title next time.

Danke Deutschland! 

The amazing album “We Are the Night” may have been released three years ago, but The Chemical Brothers strike again! 

I’ve always been a fan of their music; actually one of their tracks from the 2007’s album is one of my favorite songs ever. In  late 2008, I had the chance to see them live which definitely made me like them even more. Their music sounded awesome, it’s just a joy to listen to their electronic beats live with a big plus, they always add an important element to their gigs: the visual. Actually, afterwards I would spend several hours watching live videos on YouTube just because of the visuals that were constantly appearing on the back screens.

Now I’m pleased to notice that The Chemical Brothers have once again taken visual effects seriously and in partnership with Apple released an LP of their seventh album including a Visual Experience throughout the entire album. For me, it’s just a pleasant experience to watch the 50-minutes video made with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall (the same who did the live videos) along with the insanely good electronic beats.

For any electronic music fans this is a must-have, that you can get on the iTunes Store!

For a long time I’ve wanted to have a place where I could place my ideas and my thoughts. Well, I have been using Twitter for more than two years now but sometimes 140 characters is not enough. So, I decided to create this Tumblr blog the same day I release my new website, which you can check out here.

I will try to make this blog the most interesting possible. In the meantime, you can follow it to keep up-to-date every time I post anything new.

Finally, I would like to thank Emanuel Sá, Stéphane Reverdy, Justine Ratajczak and Michael Joseph that helped me put this blog and especially the website together.

See you later,

Francisco André