Maxima
Thu Aug 21 21:52:37 2008
Nou barry is ferpect !
Discussion (1)Cambio de nombre
Tue Apr 22 00:15:57 2008
Estoy evaluando cambiarme el nombre, que tal estas alternativas:
- Sexbastián Gózalez
- Sexbastard Gózale
- Sexboss Go-sales!
- Sexspartian Gorgónzola
... darle un nuevo giro a mi sex appeal :-P
Goodbye KDE?
Mon Feb 11 23:21:20 2008
KDE 3.5 works so nicely for me. I tried out and did not like KDE 4. Since 3.5 is not going to be maintained in the long run, I wonder whether one day I will switch to something else, when things stop working as neatly as they do right now.
A few things I like, as silly as they might seem:
- The 'Run Command' dialog.
- Konsole, one of the too few decent terminals supporting UTF-8; I like tabs as well. Fonts look neat.
- Amarok (rocks, really). With Global Shortcuts (which every KDE application offers) I configured the multimedia keys of my Apple keyboard so that I can do a number of frequent things with one stroke. I can see the name of the song I am listening to, and rate it without moving my hands away from the keyboard (among other things). Thanks to the On-Screen Display popup such information needs not consume screen realstate permanently.
- Konqueror. Great tool, both as a file browser (with neat tools like splitting a window horizontally and vertically to work as a kind of Midnight Commander), and as a web browser. The rendering of web pages is better than that of Firefox, specially concerning fonts. Pages look sexier. I have not taken the time to see if I can fix Firefox, though, but I didn't have to tweak Konqueror in the first place. Konqueror is lighter than Firefox (launches faster, consumes less memory). Windows can also be split when acting as a web browser, although I haven't used that feature yet. I can configure web shortcuts such that typing gg:chr97 launches a Google query, or dict:serendipity searches the meaning in dictionary.cambridge.org. I also use Wikipedia often, that's wp:galactus.
- IRKick: allows me to control Amarok, tvtime, and about everything else I want through my remote control; very handy when I want to (say) lower or rise the volume and I am preparing something in the kitchen.
- DCOP (KDE's interprocess communication / remote procedure call technology) makes application integration easy. For instance, I can query the API supported by Amarok or the screensaver and control it from IRKick. Also, I can control e.g. Amarok remotely from my laptop (when I don't have the remote at hand, or the path to the IR sensor is obstructed :-P).
- KDE's Control Center offers plenty of options that have allowed me to tweak stuff as I whish, easily.
- Klipper (very handy)
- K3b is great for burning CDs and DVDs.
- Akregator does a fine job as RSS tracker.
- Handy apps like KSnapshot, kFlickr and digiKam.
KDE 4 supports these applications as well, but it's bloated with visual features, and the taskbar is huge and intrusive. That's it... the taskbar is unacceptably big and rigid. Dunno.
DiscussionDe la anarquía
Thu Feb 7 00:15:33 2008
Leí por ahí que el individualismo en USA está ligado a un carácter anárquico o libertario de su pueblo. Como no tenía espacio suficiente para comentar esa afirmación, decidí hacerlo aquí.
Solo quería decir que una comunidad realmente anárquica tiene un carácter colectivo: no es realmente "cada cual por su lado y sálvese quien pueda". La anarquía está ligada a la pertenencia a una comunidad y la cooperación entre sus miembros. Dicho de otra forma, una sociedad puramente (realmente) individualista no podría ser anárquica, ya que se requiere un cierto marco para funcionar sin autoridad.
Discussion (9)Zeitgeist, the movie
Wed Feb 6 23:43:33 2008
No sé muy bien para qué escribo este blog, si a penas una o dos personas lo leen, claro que las estimo mucho :-) Eso me da ánimos para continuarlo.
Acabo de ver una película interesante, Zeitgeist (dura 2 horas).
La forma tal vez no es la más apropiada (tiene un tono sensacionalista), pero el contenido es inquietante. Varias de las ideas principales me parecen válidas: el rol de las religiones, los intereses de las guerras, etc.
En todo caso, y aparte de esa película, los invito a pensar dos veces antes de usar el calificativo "terrorista": claramente es un concepto fabricado con unos objetivos bastante específicos. Watcha language dude !
De paso recomiendo dos películas realmente excelentes, Ladybird Ladybird y It's a Free World de Ken Loach. Maestro.
New CafePress on-line shop for the Freaks Unidos
Tue Jan 15 17:59:01 2008
I took the liberty to open a CafePress shop for the Freaks Unidos. If you are one of FU, let me know whenever you want to add a product to the store !
Quote from comp.lang.lisp
Wed Jan 2 11:20:37 2008
Here's a quote of a recent message from comp.lang.lisp which I found amusing:
Haskell is an imperatively functional language; Lisp is a functioning imperative language.
Clojure
Thu Dec 6 23:45:40 2007
This new Clojure programming language is thrilling. There is a recent presentation with audio and slides available.
At some point in the talk Rich Hickey quotes another programmer:
If your programming language were purely functional, the only thing you could do is warm up your computer.
Nice way of putting it. Reply from someone in the public:
Warming up the computer would also be a side effect
Ha!
I love programming.
The Universe
Sun Dec 2 15:55:46 2007
I guess almost everybody must have thought this. Is the Universe as we know it all there is to it? For me it is intriguing to think that there is just one reality, one material world and one Universe. Why only planets, galaxies, etc.? There must be other realities out there.
Much like matter is divided in smaller parts, I sometimes fancy that our whole Universe is part of a bigger particle: that our Universe is just one tiny electron that spins around who knows what. That particle of which our Universe is part, is probably a supra-atom of some other reality. May be our dearest atom belongs to the excrement of a supra-cow, supra-dog, or a supra-pig, in a supra-Universe that is a mirror of ours – in a fractal way. Or it could be that the supra-Universe is our same Universe. So that our universe has back-references to itself in every possible sub-particle. Or it might be that our supra-Universe is completely different.
Could it be that when scientists blow particles apart in a particle accelerator, they're making big bangs in smaller universes? May be our Universe is so scattered because we are the result of a supra-nuclear-fission! But the idea that we belong to cow shit seems more suitable to me, more romantic.
I fancy that in the outer Universe time passes much slower than in ours. If the supra-entities would look at us, they would see fast-camera action. If we would look in sub-atomic particles, we would see ultra-rapid infra-entities moving on steroids.
Anyway. Long life to cow shit.
Source code compilation is not eco-friendly.
Tue Nov 13 00:36:09 2007
The operating system I use in my PC and the packaging system I use under Mac OS X have many neat features and advantages. They have, however, one major drawback.
The promotion of compilation from source code to build packages makes people tend to leave their computers turned on for extended periods of time. Leaving a PC turned on means increased energy consumption; for instance, people often leave their computers working on compilation (or worse: idle) during a whole night.
Seen from this perspective, distributions that promote compilation of packages from source code are less eco-friendly than distribution with binary packages.
Every user of a source-code-oriented distribution should use it responsibly vis-à-vis energy consumption. For instance, I try to compile packages only while I am using my PC for some other purpose, which happens to be easy since my PC is my TV set, HiFi system, wireless access point... and yes, home computer! I try to never leave my PC turned on during nights and while being away.
I believe that much energy is being wasted by computers that are left turned on needlessly, and that bugs me awfully. P2P applications also promote waste of energy (from the point of view expressed here). The myth that hard disk lifetime is shortened by turning it on and off further contributes. Finally, laziness preventing people from routinely booting and halting their systems is perhaps the worst of all shameless and useless energy sinks.
So dear responsible user: turn your computer off, Pachamama will thank you.