castanyes blaves
Random ramblings about some random stuff, and things; but more stuff than things -- all in a mesmerizing and kaleidoscopic soapbox-like flow of words.9/29/2005
Wow!!!!
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptop-images.html
Five companies are working with MIT to develop an initial 5 million to 15 million test units within the year: Google, Advanced Micro Devices, News Corp., Red Hat and BrightStar, Negroponte said. He said the current plan is to produce 100 million to 150 million units by 2007.
Ten best things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:
10) "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."
9) "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."
8) "Whew! Guess I left the top off the White-Out. You probably got here just in time!"
7) "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."
6) "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."
5) "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?"
4) "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."
3) "The coffee machine is broken..."
2) "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot..."
And the #1 best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk...
1) " ... in Jesus' name. Amen."
Heard on the Radio two days ago:
There is an old joke told of a young monk who goes to his superior with two questions:
Can I smoke a cigarette while I am praying ?
No. When you pray, you should only pray...
But he then asks the further question:
Can I pray while I am smoking a cigarette ?
Yes, you can!
Prayer can be done at any time and in any place!
President Bush was at a meeting yesterday when one of his advisors told him that a Brazilian soldier had been killed in Iraq.
"OH NO!" shouted Bush, "that's terrible!"
A silence fell over the room while everyone looked at Bush.
He looked back up the advisor with tears in his eyes and said "Just how many is a Brazilian!?"
9/27/2005
Stephen Colbert is hilarious
If you haven't seen any of the Daily Show appearances of Stephen Colbert... you should.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1575532,00.html
[...]
I am told that I am being stopped and searched because:
· they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;
· I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
· two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;
· I am wearing a jacket "too warm for the season";
· I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;
· I looked at people coming on the platform;
· I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket.
[...]
9/26/2005
Uber Converter
The ÜberConverter is...
* A universal vector-graphics file converter.
* A general-purpose geometry storage/translator scheme.
* A convenient way to deal with a multiple formats.
* A sandbox for real-time interoperability ideas.
* An opportunity to realize exponential returns on import/export code.
* And more...
http://scratchcomputing.com/projects/uber-converter/
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Looking for a SVG Viewer plugin for Firefox Under Linux
Does anybody know where can I get a SVG Viewer that will work for
Firefox under Linux?
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9/23/2005
Google Define: you were saying?
It would be cool if Google would be able to find sayings definitions with the "define:" tool.
Example:
define: "while the cat is away, the mice will play"
Would give the resulting definitions of what this saying means.
PD: It would even be cooler if Google Define could find similar sayings for the meaning of a given saying. Or similar sayings in other languages.
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To improve Google Define even more, it would be great if, asked for a misspell word, like:
define: ratchett
Would give you a "Did you mean: ratchet" inside Define.
9/15/2005
One of the wonders of Open Source Software is that the infrastructure is open for everyone to contribute. This has an striking effect on translating software to several different languages in a much easier way than it is to convince a big company to do so with its products.
Today I found an email in the rosetta mailing list about people getting the grips with the Kurdish version of Ubuntu, a GNU/Linux distribution sponsored by Canonical Ltd., meant to be easy to use for everyone.
I wonder how long it will take for other software companies will have Kurdish language support for their products...
9/13/2005
http://usefulinc.com/edd/blog/contents/2005/09/13-interviews/read
Autrijus Tang
The first time I found about Autrijus Tang's OSS work was when trying to find Standalone Perl executables.
Now I found out that he is also working on other great Perl related stuff:
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/09/08/autrijus-tang.html
Alan Cox
He is a member of the select group of people who has an entry in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox
...and a very hairy photo in it.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6761928882.html
A Linux implementation delivering single-digit microsecond responsiveness on 64-bit dual-core AMD Opteron processors is being demonstrated at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston this week. From the article: "According to FSMLabs, an AMD Opteron 265 dual-core system running RTLinux can deliver guaranteed interrupt latencies of no more than five microseconds, with scheduling jitter of no more than eight microseconds, even with Linux under a heavy load.
This is important when something is mission critical. For example, a nuclear reaction being controlled. Say, interrupt 666 triggers when something goes horribly wrong, and if you enable a safety system within 10ms, nothing bad happens. It would be good to have a system that guarantees response in less than that time. That's the purpose of a real time OS like RTLinux.
This is not appropriate, necessary, or indeed useful for desktop systems or workstations of any sort, or even servers.
Apparently, this is also important in things like Movie Editing:
http://linuxmovies.movieeditor.com/software/index.html
9/11/2005
More great SoC projects:
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Open Source VoIP
http://divmod.org/projects/shtoom
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Ubuntu Lite
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LightweightDesktop
The target platform for Ubuntu Lite is a 200 MHz Pentium with 64
megabytes of RAM and a 1.5 gigabyte hard drive. It will come
preconfigured with the tools most commonly needed by computer users:
network connectivity through dial-up or Ethernet
web browsing
word processing
instant messaging
games
The central focus will be on usability of the system. It will be
intuitive to use and require a minimum of previous knowledge.
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Mama, mama, "orchata" se escribe con "h" o sin "h"?
Con "h" hijo, con "h", que si no, se diria ORCATA!!
This is sooo true:
http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/archives/001893.html
James Annan's economist joke:
Two economists are walking down the road, and one says to the other "Hey, do you see that? It looks like a 10 pound note in the gutter over there. I'm going over to get it". The second replies "Don't bother, if it really was a tenner someone would already have picked it up".
The joke is in the midst of a nice post worth reading, the summation of which is that markets are not necessarily good predictors of the future (say, the price of oil in 2010 or something), but rather are good collectors of the best available current information about what the future might hold.
I didn't know that such great projects are planned for next releases
of the Open Source GNOME Desktop Manager:
####
http://live.gnome.org/MemoryReduction
Some important hogs are already being taken care of:
http://live.gnome.org/MemoryReduction_2fProgressTracker
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The different Summer of Code projects:
http://live.gnome.org/SummerOfCode
Of which I particularly "behold":
Improve GNOME startup time
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CamTrack visual face tracking
http://live.gnome.org/CamTrack - Head-Tracking Pointer
Awesome stuff, currently in alpha state
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9/09/2005
I have been googling/wikipedeying? about great gurus that happen to be
Google employees:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinton_Cerf
Wow! And all in only one lifetime...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lucovsky
He has a weblog!
Louis Monier - haven't found a wikipedia entry, only a stub
Andy Rubin - haven't found a wikipedia entry nor a stub
9/05/2005
The Spanish government proposed an increase in taxation of alcohol products, cigarettes and tobacco-related products, and fuels to account for the expenses of the public medical welfare.
Anyone who has visited Spain knows that alcohol and tobacco are very cheap in terms of the taxation they receive, compared to other countries like UK. Some people are travelling from UK to Spain with low-fare airlines, buying cigarettes and alcohol for family and friends, and almost paying up for the trip with the difference in price.
The taxation of alcohol and cigarrettes will make more people hesitant to abuse the consumption of these products. In my opinion, this is a good thing.
Every now and then there are rumors of more taxation of petrols. This has always an immediate effect on transport professionals who claim that they can't cope with the already high prices, and need a less-taxed professional petrol.
But the reality is that with the high oil prices, a lot of cash is already leaving Spain. Europe is losing money everytime a drop of gas is badly spent. Every effort made in using petrols more efficiently is well worth. And taxation is one way of doing it. Maybe not the fairest way, but effective.
So I believe that Spain has to taxate alcohol and cigarettes a lot more than it is right now, and then, also taxate petrols.
9/01/2005
Installing Hugin on Ubuntu Hoary
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