Wednesday, September 24, 2008

La solución a la crisis económica

Es curioso constatar cómo ningún político, economista o periodista (me da igual que rime y quede cacofónico) hayan sido capaces de analizar con acierto el origen de la crisis económica. Ni siquiera el sempiterno Warren Buffet ha acertado esta vez. Efectivamente falta liquidez, pero la solución no consiste en inyectar más efectivo sino en ahorrar. Los paises occiedentales, con EEUU a la cabeza hace lustros que viven en una economía basada en suposiciones y no en la productividad tradicional de sus agentes. Sus ciudadanos y empresas consumen muchísimo más de lo que producen y, como consecuencia, se endeudan. Los bancos fomentan esta actitud ya que son los únicos agentes económicos no gubernamentales que tienen capacidad de generar efectivo a través de la nada gracias al coeficiente de caja. En resumen, la crisis va a agravarse más y más a medida que inyectemos más liquidez. Ahmadineyad puede tener razón cuando afirma que: "El imperio americano está llegando al final del camino" en la ONU. EEUU y, por ende, todos los paises occidentales, tienen que cambiar drásticamente su ritmo de vida, so pena de llegar a un colapso sin retorno. Un colapso que arrastraría también a China, que sí ahorra, pero que no está madura para tomar el relevo de EEUU como motor económico.

A company with this CEO can't survive much longer

Monday, September 22, 2008

Leica enters the digital SLR market with 37.5 megapixel surprise

Leica has just announced a camera that can potentially revamp both the company and high quality photography all in one shot. I you have 20000€ to spare, wait till next summer and get your hands on this new Leica S2. See an early report at: http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=816234

Nivell "C" és paper mullat

Ho veieu, ja us ho deia el divendres, el nivell "C" és paper mullat. Llegiu què n'opinen les Universitats catalanes:

http://politica.e-noticies.cat/les-universitats-passen-dexigir-el-nivell-c-20910.html

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Nivell C de català.

Qui vulgui, ja em pot felicitar perquè acabo d'obtenir la certificació oficial de que tinc un nivell C de català. Amb molt bon ull, els pujolistes que varen endegar aquestes certificacions, les varen ordenar de menor a major qualificació. El nivell D és el que implica més coneixements i l'A el que n'implica menys. Aquesta ordenació s'ha demostrat que és directament proporcional a la capacitat que un té d'arribar a llocs de rellevància en l'administració pública del país (s'entén que parlo de Catalunya, és clar). És a dir, si vols arribar molt amunt, ni se t'acudeixi obtenir el nivell C i, si pots, evita fins i tot presentar-te a l'A.

I've told you, they have completely lost their path.

AppleInsider | Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign created with Macs
Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign created with Macs

By Prince McLean
Published: 05:00 PM EST

Metadata found on Microsoft's creative copy used in its 'I'm a PC' ad reveals that the graphics were actually produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. After the details were published on the Flickr photo sharing site, Microsoft scrambled to polish off the embarrassing details last night



Maybe someday I'll start a campaign that says: "I AM A Human Being THAT USES A COMPUTER THAT JUST WORKS WHEN IT HAS TO, FOLLOW ME AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT YOUR TOOLS".

Friday, September 19, 2008

Microsoft's adds seem to be getting right

New Microsoft's adds are getting to the point a bit faster than previous Seinfeld centered ones. See new add below. The point is that not only Mac people can be cute, PC people are also great people. I think I understand the message, but the real point is that PC people often struggle to get their computer in a working state while Mac people are far better positioned to work straight out of the box because hackers are cute enough to leave Mac users alone most of the time, and one single manufacturer controls the core of the system. That's what's cuteness all about: having a computer that you can rely on (most of the time). The rest is babbling.




I'm a PC 2

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Installing mysql gem

Mysql gem will be the only mysql library available for RubyOnRails from 2.2 onwards. So, better install it now.

The easiest way to install mysql gem is making shure it finds the proper mysql configuration via:

gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

The example is valid for OSX 15.5. CentOS installation command should be:

gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/bin/mysql_config

Monday, September 15, 2008

VMWare guests' clock running faster or slower than host machine.

To avoid the guest clock speed to run slower or faster add the bold commands to the /etc/grub.conf file

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-28.9)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-28.9 ro root=/dev/hda2 clock=pit nosmp noapic nolapic

See vmware KB for further info.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

De mal a peor: la crisis avanza y el negro es el color de moda.

La crisis avanza y vamos de mal a peor, así opina Manel Pérez en el episodio Sumidos en la perplejidad de La Ventana Indiscreta (o LA VENTANDA INDISCRETA como reza el título de la columna en la página digital posiblemente debido a que han reducido o eliminado la plantilla de correctores ortoestilísticos). Y esto no es nada comparado con Chernobyl visto por Elena ("Kiddofspeed"). Ella se ha adentrado en la ciudad fantasma como mínimo en tres ocasiones y sus fotografías no tienen precio. Si estáis preparad@s pinchad aquí

Ánimo, que no hay mal que dure más de cien años, ni siquiera Microsoft.



Friday, September 12, 2008

Toght times for Microsoft

You see, even HP is fed up with those guys! Hp will develop it's own version of Linux for Home computers  (HP developing own home OS to avoid Windows?)

Nuestro rastro electrónico (Un fallo de seguridad permite rastrear las acciones en un iPhone)

Cada vez es más difícil no dejar rastro electrónico: cuando navegamos dejamos rastro, cuando utilizamos el móvil dejamos rastro (Un fallo de seguridad permite rastrear las acciones en un iPhone · ELPAÍS.com), ... En definitiva, hay que ser un experto en forénsica computacional para lograr evitar dejar ninguna pista electrónica. Tendremos que aprender a convivir con ello porque el telecontrol no ha hecho más que empezar.


How to get rid of an old MacOS header fork

Download and Install macutil version 2.0b3 on Mac OS X by issuing
"sudo port install macutil" <br /><br />Then issue "macunpack -3 <file name>"<br /><br />Use the data fork as needed.<br />

Festa Facebook a Madrid

Sembla ser que a la festa de Facebook a Madrid només hi varen assistir 500 persones segons informa El País (Heterogénea "megafiesta" Facebook · ELPAÍS.com) De tota manera, és un començament. Traspassar al món presencial les amistats virtuals sempre és complicat. En fi, a veurem com evoluciona la de Barcelona.

Update on browser wars

There are three things I really enjoy in Firefox browser that no other browser has:
  1. It has multiple dictionary spell checking on the fly.
  2. It has ubiquity as a text oriented mashup all-propose automation tool.
  3. It is easily extensible.

The only drawback is that it's slower than Safari when it comes to rendering pages.

What are you waiting to switch to Firefox?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Microsoft is getting weirder and weirder

Microsoft's second add is even longer that the first one and is a trillion miles away from the route to making Vista a lovable operating system. It's the weirdest add in history. Besides, next beta Windows incarnation, Windows 7, is just a few months away. What are this guys thinking about? They seem to have completely lost their track.

Wonder what name are they going to give to the next Windows version. Vista 2.0?

País descafeïnat

Estem en un país totalment descafeïnat (vegeu: La ofrenda a Casanova arranca con menos manifestantes de lo habitual)

1. A les celebracions del dia nacional hi ha poca gent i els pocs que hi han estan desavinguts.
2. Els polítics són incapaços de posar-se d'acord per tal de que els nostres impostos no vagin a parar a fons desconeguts. Ara està de moda fer servir l'argument de la mitjana. Es deuen pensar que no hem anat a escola per entendre que la mitjana és un molt mal indicador per a situacions de desequilibri com la nostra.

ESTIC PERPLEXE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Cooliris (formely PicLens) plugin: a new way to look at pictures in the web

If you want to experience an immerse experience looking at images in the web give Cooliris a try. The image below shows my Flickr stream through the eyes of Cooliris.

Cool unblocking stuff: How to Use 43 Folders

Are you unhappy or stuck managing your current life, take a look at How to Use 43 Folders link, you might find your way in a few clicks. Look at what sucks and act accordingly.

Friday, September 05, 2008

El Vagabundo de la Terminal C

La meva preocupació per la fama també és compartida pel noi que ha decidit habitar a la Terminal C de l'aeroport de Barcelona (vegeu l'article de La Vanguardia: El Vagabundo de la Terminal C). Al llegir la notícia veiem que el noi està molt preocupat per sortir a "Gran Hermano". Aquesta admiració per "GH" no la comparteixo, però sí que comparteixo la necessitat d'acumular fama per tal de tenir una presència terrena més enllà de la mort del cos. Avui per avui, si ningú no em demostra el contrari, això només és factible acumulant fama i construint-se una imatge sostenible a la Xarxa. Al llegir l'article de la Vanguardia i els comentaris em queda un regust agre al veure que hom qualifica al pobre noi de poc autèntic i paparina però el seu comportament respon a necessitats bàsiques del ésser humà com són l'autoestima i l'afany de supervivència. No el podem pas culpar de ser tant humà :-)

Fame: the path to immortality

I am very concerned with what will happen to my online presence when I die, specially with my shots. I take for granted that nobody will take care of them (always think the worst scenario), so I have to account for that. That's why I replicate my shots in as many free online services as it is currently feasible and practical, hoping that some of them will last long enought (whatever that means). The Internet Archive Project is not enought for me, I like to have and active presence in the net even after death. Isn't that called immortality?

If one reaches a certain degree of fame he or she can expect that his works or acts will be preserved after death, but if someone, like me, has no fame whatsoever, he or she has to take care of his after death image by himself :-)

Cap al terminal que ens connecta al núvol

En Kevin Kelly i molts d'altres visionaris han predit fa temps que aviat farem servir terminals per connectar-nos a la Xarxa i abandonarem el concepte d'ordinador personal. Kelly prediu que cap al 2040 la Xarxa tindrà una capacitat de computació que superarà la de tots els cervells del habitants de la terra (vegeu: Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web). Doncs bé, sembla que la febre per obtenir un d'aquests terminals connectats a la Xarxa ja està començant a picar fort, mireu sinó com tots els fabricants estant traient portàtils i ultraportàtils i abandonant la producció d'ordinadors de sobretaula (vegeu l'article del El Pais: La familia crece: Dell venderá su miniportátil en España en octubre) .

New Microsoft advertisement

My last three posts are about Microsoft but I really can help it. Yesterday they aired a new ad apparently to give Vista a big bump. Well, the ad is pretty well done on the technical side, but it's too metaphorical. Once again Apple is leading the path, their ads have the exact amount of metaphore needed. Sorry Microsoft, I think you wasted your 10 million $ invest this time.

See the ad at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ (don't know if it will stay there or not). By the way, why do they make easy thngs so difficult: try to view the video twice and you'll sure be in trouble. Perhaps they don't whant us to look at it twice!

News in spanish:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internet/Microsoft/lanza/campana/mejorar/imagen/Vista/elpeputec/20080905elpepunet_5/Tes

Thursday, September 04, 2008

How long does it take to fix an infected Windows XP computer?

I have a good friend that knows nothing about computer's intrincacies. He had erased many of the essential Widows XP operating system files by mistake and came to me for help. How came?, easy, because Windows permision system is not suited for mainstream home users. It complies with all military standards but sucks when it comes to home computers. Why? Easy, because every single Windows home computer user uses his computer with administrative rights and that's an open door to problems. It has taken me more than one day to fix my friend's computer (a huge amount of money if I was to charge him, but I won't because he's my friend and a nice guy)

Unix, Linux or Mac OSX BSDized operating systems have a much simpler rights management system (at least if you do not activate acls) but it turns to be much more effective for home use because the normal user only adquires administrative privileges when he has to install stuff. It's called impersonation, something that is pretty dumb difficult to achieve in Windows because of military compliance issues. Is it that difficult to keep things simple when they don't need to be sofisticated? I would recommend Steve Balmer to take some Zen lessons from the other Steve (I am thinking of Jobbs of course), maybe then the world would turn round more smoothly and I would devote my time to more pleasent issues.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Tought times coming for Microsoft

There is an unbroken law of nature: organisms are born and die sooner or later. Companies are no exception to this rule. Time seems to have come for Microsoft to fade out. Bill Gates used to say that if Microsoft stopped innovating it will not survive long. Well, don't know if Microsoft has ever innovated much, but tought times are coming for the company. Few people seem to be happy with Vista and the company can't stop selling XP operated computers (see: http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/03/ms.lifts.xp.netbook.limits/). Internet Explorer is facing ever more competitors and Office is being fased out by OpenOffice and Google Docs because nobody needs such an amount of features to write a few lines of text at the speed of our slow human brains.

Don't worry, I don't expect anybody to agree with me.

Search by image similarity

Tineye image service allows you to search images similar to the one you feed them. So far I haven't been able to find any similar images to mines (just a few tests though). Bear in mind that the service only indexes a 900 million images but the amount keeps growing.