Will i see this some day?

Will we see this here in Chile?

Bikes parked at the Hague central station (i think is berlin, am not sure), taken by hpjansson
Yesterday, in a tv show (at red tv) were talking about the pollution, and hector precht said that nobody want to ride a bike, that the fact is that everybody is buying cars, so if there is too much traffic the solution is build a flying highway and under that a flying train. Well i only going to say: What the fuck is wrong with you people?. The quality of life here in santiago is awful, do you want to make it even worse?, come on, drive a car is sweet 'sometimes', when you drive a car you _must_ think in the consequences of the act, like the pollution, the expensive energy, and all the bad things related to this.

please politicians, you must define guidelines to improve the quality of life in the long term, not just fix with patches the bugs, you must design the city from here to 50 or even 100 years. because with the current style of development we are gonna be a city that must be crossed if your are lucky in a day (remember that everybody is buying houses at peripheral places (like quilicura, lampa, buin, san bernardo) and also buying cars to move in the city spending hours inside the car.

currently i am using a fucking black hat :D do you what i mean?

Redes abiertas

Hace un tiempo zeus me dijo que habia dejado el access point (acceso a la wifi) de su casa abierto, es decir, sin contraseña, y me invito a que hiciera lo mismo, pero pensé 'mierda, estos leechers de mierda solo abusaran de mi escualida conexion', luego me fui de vacaciones con la naty y habian 3 redes en donde nos quedabamos y 'oh maldicion, las 3 cerradas' (dos con wep y una wpa) y fue lata no poder buscar en internet solucion a un problema que tenia y revisar el correo. Entonces ahora que vtr subió mi velocidad penśe 'le daré una oportunidad a mi barrio', así que dejé el acceso abierto por si alguien requiere de internet de la misma manera que yo lo necesité, espero que no abusen, pk o sino me veré forzado a cerrar el acceso.

los invito a que uds hagan lo mismo, tratemos de que existan más redes abiertas, en especial los que tenemos notebook y constantemente nos encontramos fuera de casa con la necesidad de tener internet en lugares extraños.

job and hobby

The last few weeks i am been thinking about what to do when your hobby becomes your job, everybody need different things in their life, a job (especially a paid job), a hobby, friends, girlfriend or wife, but my hobby always have been the computers related stuffs (programming, chat, play computer games, setup software, ...), it's stressing stay all the day doing stuffs at the computer (the job) and back home to keep doing things in the computer at home (the hobby), i think that this kind of behavior it is not healthy.


I think the cars/motorcycles will became my new hobby :D

Nerd test 2.0

nothing to say :P

Sync the date-time

If you live in Chile, just use the ntp server that has the naval army ntp.shoa.cl that should give you the correct hour even after the day that the computer will change it by design.

I hope that server works like i expect :-\

Design Patterns

The design patterns were created to be used, but at what cost must be followed?, when is appropriated brake it?, it's a complicated thing, specially when you wanna have well documented softwares and extensible.

Rizoma has a new home!

The new home of rizoma is savannah, we moved the project from chileforge, because the lack of a version control system distinct of cvs (we were using a private server with subversion for a few months, thanks zeus) and the apparently lack of support to the forge software. This movement will make us loose some things, like the Chilean aspect of the project (the most important currently), but we will win some technical stuffs that will let us do our work with a little more of comfort.

At savannah we are the codenamed rizoma project and we are using the git repo, the mailing list (rizoma-devel@nongnu.org and rizoma-usuarios@nongnu.org), when we release the next version will start working the bugs tracking system and some other stuffs.

We hope to recruit some developers, documentation writers and a graphical designer, so if you want to enjoy developing a simple point of sale software (current version is gpl2, but the next one will be gpl3) plesae join us a IRC (irc://irc.freenode.net #rizoma) and/or the mailing lists.

Amazing motorcycle

This vacations (that i spend thanks to my girlfriend and her nice family) outside of Pisco Capel's factory i saw an amazing motorcycle, the bad part is that the batteries of my camera were almost dead so i only could take just one picture.

This monster has a 1800cc engine, it has a comfortable heating system for the legs and a lot of other nice things, do you imagine traveling on this motorcycle? (if is with your girlfriend even better)

The friki part was that with then man of the picture (that was the driver) were traveling his mother in back sit, an old woman of 76 years old with skirt :) it's a completely hardcore grandma

Power management on linux

One of the biggest issues on linux is the power management, especially if you have laptop (that probably didn't came with linux preinstalled).

I always recommended the suspend2.net patch for the kernel, the patch now is called tuxonice, this comes with a pretty good set of scripts to interact with this (apt-cache search tuxonice), but the ugly part of this solution is that you must recompile a clean kernel, with clean i mean the kernel.org official release, because if you try to use the sources provided by your distribution you will have troubles applying the patch (offset isues) and it will be necessary that you change the source code manually, so this is a looong way, but i strong believe that the tuxonice is pretty good for strange hardware. But some days ago i recompiled the v2.6.24 kernel + tuxonice patch, it took me a few hours of cpu, and the result was a fully functional kernel, but with a very pour hard disk I/O performance:
v2.6.23-1-686:

# hdparm -t /dev/hda 
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  110 MB in  3.02 seconds =  36.37 MB/sec

v2.6.24tuxonice

# hdparm -t /dev/hda 
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:   14 MB in  3.05 seconds =   4.59 MB/sec

so it became pretty useless, that make me dedicate time to make works the uswsusp way (integrated into the kernel.org and obviously present in the the debian kernel package, and probably in almost any distribution).

The simple way of do this in debian is

# apt-get install uswsusp pm-utils

with this we install the uswsusp support and associated tools, then it's necessary configure it with:

#dpkg-reconfigure uswsusp

if you use ndiswrapper for your wireless card, you need to tell to the power-management that unload the ndiswrapper module before it starts the hibernate, you can do this with the following line inside the /etc/pm/config.d/unload_modules file

SUSPEND_MODULES="ndiswrapper"

now you must test the kernel functionality with the following commands 's2disk' and 's2ram' (the first for suspend to disk and the second one for suspend to ram)

if it works, now you mus test the pm-utils with equivalent commands 'pm-hibernate' and 'pm-suspend', these tools are wrappers to the underlying kernel functions, if it worked now the last step is authorize the users to use these shiny new features, for this you just need to add the username to the powerdev group, for example if the user is foobar you must type the following command:

# adduser foobar powerdev

now you restart the session to let changes apply (maybe you will need to reboot your computer to the changes made to the kernel were refreshed) and try to use your {gnome | kde | any-other}-power-manager tool

A good coffe cup

I love internet, thanks to this amazing invention we can obtain information about everything.

I'm gonna make me a coffe cup (no, it's not a java based software :P) and suddenly thought 'i am going to look for how to make a better coffe cup', and the result was that I found a lot of information, even a site called CoffeGeek, this kind of things only can be founded on internet, do you imagine a specialized coffe magazine, in chile at least it would be a dead bussiness.

Thanks cold war for give us this amazing tool :-\

The future ... ?_?

Well, currently my future is a little complicated, first of all i'm running against the time to finish the implementation of my project degree, it will be frustrating not having a almost functional software when march starts, but i'm a little tired of my project degree, i don't know the reason, probably it's just the lack of formal vacations.

The second trouble, that is in second place in the queue, is get real and formal job, a paid one of course, here in Chile there is a lot of opportunities in the field of computers engineering, but none of the them is exciting for my interests, the main fields where i can get a job are:

• Software development, there are two kinds of development here, customized software from scratch, or generic software with a few tweaks to make it works. at first sounds interesting, but most of the developments are with .NET (not mono, just Microsoft) and Java (not iced tea nor , just the sun's implementation), so like an open source enthusiast if i have to choose between these options, i prefer Java. Of course there are other technologies used by the developers, like PHP (4 or 5), a little of ruby on rails, cobol mainly for legacy systems, but one of my biggest troubles is that i really suck in web-based software development, it's just complicated to me, i don't know how to organize a web that must be an application and not just a home style website. Well that's on the tech side, but in the human side, the software developers are like garbage, the enterprises are not interested in have
  
• Systems administration, this job i dont like, you work under constant pressure, you are like the rare of the company (no ofense, but is how the others look the sysadmin), it's not a job where you can climb in the scale of power inside if the company, probably you can became the boss of the department, but nothing else, the manager will never ask you how to aern money :P
• Consulting, this job is less technical than the others, you need to be more polite, there is a lot documents to write, reports and other things, but you can have a large projection, it' a well paid job, but this one does not fit my skills, i am not good with the reports, am just good enough to be an engineer
• Support, it's like an external sysadmin (IMO), the pressure is high, unless you work for a company that cares about his employees (i know people working in oracle, on support, and they are happy with the job, but still does not have the load of a year of work), with this work you must turn off your imaginations and just follow the standard procedures, because the improvisations could cost you the job if the the solutions fails.
• PYME, i always said that i like to work inside a PYME, because you must do a little of everything, but with time i realize that this have complications, because they just want the systems working, if you want to use a super-technologie, but the current is working probably the will say 'no, thanks', so its frustrating and lacks of climb positions of powers (and of course earn more money)

so, am still thinking about it :-\

Interfloss

Para empezar, quiero aclarar que no estuve presente, por lo tanto mi opinión está basada en lo que me contó una persona que asistió, y un par de mails (seudo actas) que andan dando vuelta por ahí.

Primero, la idea es buena, siempre un gran problema que han tenido las organizaciones FLOSS es la atomicidad de los esfuerzos, en especial cuando se trata de ir a hablar con gobierno u otras organizaciones burocraticas.

Segundo, tengo la fé de que la idea se ejecute con éxito, finalmente para uno que está metido en el mundo floss se beneficia indirectamente del éxito de las gestiones que puedan llevar a cabo.

Pero, ya hay cosas que no me han gustado, lo que nome gusta es que la lista de correo en la que se harán los acuerdos sea moderada, si bien la intención es evitar los trolls los que participan de las listas rapidamente se dan cuenta de estos personajes y simplemente los ignoran (usualmente luego de putearlo :P), me parece chocante que listas tan importantes como las del kernel, gtk, entre otras sean abiertas, pero esta lista de 'los iluminados' sea cerrada, se podria simplemente adoptar la politica de ignorar o kickear/banear a los trolls.

Además si bien ellos dicen que solamente debe haber un representante por organización, en la reunión habia gente que no representaba más allá de su propia persona, es verdad que solo era la primera reunión, pero en la bases decía claramente debías decir a que organización representabas, entonces como es la cosa?, los NN como nosotros debemos representar a alguien, pero las rockstar tienen free-pass?, no es nada en contra de las rockstars, pero sí en que las cosas sean parejas para todos y que no se haga lo tipico de un grupo de iluminados organizando las cosas.

Además lo que me parece gracioso es que de las 3 grandes propuestas que llevaba gnuchile 2 se las mandaron para la casa xD (que interfloss organizara flisol, que gnuchile necesitaba asesores), pero eso es más anecdotico :P

La fecha tentativa para la siguiente reunión es el 1 de marzo, espero poder aparecerme en la siguiente reunión, aunque representando a linuxdiinf, pk como no soy rockstar no tengo free-pass :-\

update: en el blog del presidente ejecutivo de gnuchile hay una especie acta y aclaración de ciertos puntos de la asamblea de interfloss (no encontré un permalink así que quizás muera con el tiempo el enlace :\)

Mouse usb en notebook

One of the things that are irritating is when you attached a usb mouse to the notebook y start to write something (like this entry) and the palm of the hand touch the touchpad y the focus change, so what for do i want keep my touchpad enabled if i am using the usb mouse?, well with the help of udev (thanks linux) i create a rule to avoid that ugly behavior

freyes@yoda:~$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/01-touchpad.rules 
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ID_CLASS="mouse", RUN+="/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=1"
ACTION=="remove", SUBSYSTEM=="input", ID_CLASS="mouse", RUN+="/usr/bin/synclient TouchpadOff=0"

The first rule disable the mouse when some usb mouse is attached to the system, and the second one enable it when the usb mouse y removed.

Remember to put shared memory config option in your xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Configured Mouse"
 Driver  "synaptics"
 Option  "Protocol" "auto-dev"
 Option  "SHMConfig"  "on"
EndSection

Of course, you can have a lot more tweks to your config, but the bold option must be present.

paris.cl defaced

jotape me mandó un link donde sale un lindo deface de la caja de windows vista en el sitio paris.cl

Rascase, a very simple tool

I've not talk much about Rascase here, but now i'm gonna explain some things where i am working on.

Rascase is mainly two things, the first one 'is my project degree to obtain my title degree of ingeniero ejecución en computación e informática (aka computer engineer)', and the second one 'is a simple CASE tool for linux to design Entity-Relationship models'.

Currently I am finishing the document to present it for corrections, these are made by a group of designed teachers (correctors teachers), they will return it to me on march (probably at the end of march), then a apply the corrections to the document and then wait for defend my project.
On the software side, rascase currently is less than a drawing program, still there is a lot of things hardcoded, but in february it must be functional tool, a really CASE tool.

Rascase will use the philosophy 'just to use', because the time don't let me develop a complete and powerfull tool like 'powerdesigner' is, but this will be just a stop on the road, i mean this will be just the first release (and i hope not the last to), my expectations are huge :)

A few thecnical details about the technologies involved in the development of the project:

• The interface is designed using glade (3.4), the are some parts made by code, especially the canvas setup and a minor details.
• The pattern design is MVC++, a MVC based pattern, defined by Ari Jaaksi (part of the development group of nokia internet tablet n770, n800, n810, and others things inside nokia)
• The programming language is Python :)
• Libraries used
• PyGTK, nothing to say about this :P
• PyODF, a python library to make documents with OpenDocument Format, i'm using it to generate the data dictionaries in ODT format
• PyGoocanvas, the bindings of goocanvas, and this is a canvas library is based in cairo
  


• The source code is managed using git, the great distributed version control system

A shot of the curently state of rascase, just a functional interface without logical code. (aka mockup of prototype :P)

Fucking ndiswrapper

Fucking ndiswrapper :-\

WWE en Santiago de chile

Sí, al fin, la

WWF

WWE estará en Chile, 100% confirmado, tanto por el sitio oficial como por un weon (aka chileno) con mucha suerte que está en yankilandia y carreteó con los hardy boyz

La cosa será el 14 de febrero, en el arena santiago (la unica vez que he estado en ese domo fue para el partido de Chile-Argentina por copa davis y quedó la cagá :P), los precios variarán entre 20 y 130 lukas, las entradas las venderán por ticketmaster

espero poder ir :-\

alguien se anima?, esto probablemente no se vuelva a repetir, porque sacar un espectaculo así de grande al backyard del mundo es bastante difícil, basta con pensar con toda esa gran cantidad de cantantes/artistas que anuncian la venida a chile y luego a la altura de brasil o llegando a argentina anuncian que no vienen a chile, razones?, chile es un mercado demasiado cagón :-\

Herramienta para Diagramas de secuencia

Hoy me cansé de las herramientas pussy (aka ide-all-in-one-use-just-the-mouse) y comencé a utilizar una herramienta a lo menos poco usual, pues consiste en que el diagrama de secuencia lo programas, es decir, escribes la logica del diagrama y la herramienta se encarga generar la gráfica :) con eso me olvidé de esos problemas malditos de 'quedó un poco corrido', 'quedo desalineado', etc..

Una muestra del primer diagrama que hice y me tomó solamente unos 10 minutos, entre cranearme la lógica del diagrama de secuencias y aprender la sintaxis (que por cierto un muy pequeña)
con el siguiente script

Usuario:Actor
x:ViewMainWindow ":ViewMainWindow"
y:y ":ControlMainwindow"
z:z ":Project"
a:a ":ControlSaveFileDialog"
b:b ":ViewSaveFileDialog"

Usuario:x.Abrir Proyecto
x:models=y.open_project()
y:a.ControlSaveFileDialog()
a:path=b.ViewSavefileDialog
y:path=a.get_path()
y:z.new Project()
y:models=z.get_model_list()

Para obtener como resultado esto otro


Definitivamente una herramienta que apunta a la productividad.

100% recomendada, el sitio de la herramienta es: http://sdedit.sourceforge.net

A pesar de que está en Java con swing, me gustó caleta :) quizás podria algún día reescribirla en pygtk xD e integrarla a mi herramienta case :D alguien se anota para esa feature :P

Emacs recargado

I'm still fascinated with the power of Emacs, it's amazing how a big group of hackers (real hackers)could develop a wonderful multi purpose tool, especially oriented to programming tasks.

The key of emacs is elisp, a functional programming language (I really hate the functional languages, but this one it is not a pain-in-the-ass like SML).

I didn't read any elisp book or tutorial, but i could made some customizations of my environment, especially with the help of jonathan (a member of the rizoma-devel crew) and emacswiki.

Today i started to improve emacs for develop python scripts, and this is the result

That is a shot of a python script evaluated (at write-time) with pylint

Now if you are developing software, probably you will need the api documentation, wel with emacs you can have the python help embedded in the main window, so if you are on a word with simple customizable shortcut you can display it like in the image:


There are another tricks that I applied to my .emacs file, i'll let them available in some website soon.

Emacs con antialias

Hoy me tomé unos minutos para continuar con el tuning de mi emacs, ya antes había pasado por aplicar happyemacs que ayudó rápidamente a dejarlo apropiado a las necesidades de un programador. Pero esta vez opté por algo menos útil a primera vista, aunque sumamente agradable a la estética y al descanso de los ojos, pues esto es texto con suavizado de bordes, mejor conocido como antialias :)

Pues bien no hay nada mejor como un par shots para que noten la diferencia (parecerá publicidad de slim center xD)

Antes

Después

La receta para esto es la siguiente (para ubuntu):
Agregar el repositorio de AlexandreVassalotti:

deb     http://ppa.launchpad.net/avassalotti/ubuntu feisty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/avassalotti/ubuntu feisty main

Aplicar

# apt-get update && apt-get install emacs-snapshot emacs-snapshot-el

con eso instalarán la versión de cvs empaquetada, con soporte de Xft, que es el que dá el soporte de antialias.

Ahora es necesario darle unos pequeños tweaks al Xresources para indicarle a emacs la tipografía que debe usar, si activar o no el antialias, etc..
Aquí está mi Xresources

freyes@yoda:~$ cat .Xresources
Emacs.font: DejaVu Sans Mono-10
Xft.antialias:  1
Xft.dpi:        96
Xft.hinting:    1
Xft.hintstyle:  hintfull

Habla por sí sola, para mayor información dirigete a tu buscador favorito.

Una vez que terminaste de editar tu Xresources debes recargar el archivo para que la X tome esta nueva configuración y eso se hace de la siguiente manera:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

Y ahora puedes ejecutar emacs :)