Punk
Fri Sep 25 16:44:14 2009
I have the impression I feel close to punk culture, in a broad sense. I don't know it very well: not its roots, nor its values. But I have been to concerts, parties, etc., and I feel kind of identified. This encompasses also environments like goa trance parties, which are supposed to be hippie. I have to expand this post, but felt like outing just the impression to begin with.
Discussion (1)On writing (and spoken) style
Thu Aug 13 10:22:23 2009
Since Twitter is so ephemeral, I thought that it would be better to share this thought here.
I observe both in Spanish and English that people often say:
- To make use of his car.
- Instead of simply: to use his car.
- Hacer entrega de los documentos.
- En vez de: entregar los documentos.
I wonder, why make use of such complicated constructions?
Maxima
Thu Aug 21 21:52:37 2008
Nou barry is ferpect !
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.