Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Ubuntu AMD64

I have been using Ubuntu almost exclusively, and AMD64 in 3 of the four computers I use.

When I moved to New York, I came only with an Ubuntu laptop, which unfortunately is an Intel Core Duo limited to 32 bits. Anyway, I discovered that people respect better your refusal to use Windows if you really don't have any installation, not even in VMs, otherwise they just think you are being uncooperative.

After a few months of Windows-abstinence and forced to really do 100% of stuff in Linux, I really got liberated.

By then, when I managed to bring my heavy boxes to New York, I purged them of Windows and got on my merry way. By the way, it has actually been merry. Ubuntu Linux not just gives me freedom, but it also incentivizes doing productive use of the computer; and disincentivizes being a passive consumer. If you think about it, for example an iPad: Apple solves most of the configuration issues so that you use your iPad and enjoy content; they charge for their design, so, everybody is happy; but you might use your iPad to watch videos and read books all they long, that's passive; if you would even think of, let's say, learning Haskell, then the device and its configuration so nice to turn you into a couch potato get in the way. Conversely, if you want to make some nice code, in Linux you have all the enticements; in the end I have become a tad more disciplined.

My main gripe about Ubuntu in particular is that the automatic configurations do far too much that you don't have visibility of. And there are many options that you can not get to through the user interface; and this may give you the worse of both worlds if the User Interface somehow disagrees with the actual configurations: The novice can't do what he wants, and the expert who does not need the dumbed down UI is interfered by its options. It happened to me recently: I had set up a non-standard port for VNC, and Ubuntu dropped the "advanced tab" in the "Remote Desktop" option. I forgot this, and then I needed VNC and it would not work no matter what I tried. Until I got to conclude that the user interface had an option somewhere that needed fixing, which forced me to learn about gconf-editor to get to the config options I set before an automatic update that hid them from me.

With regards to the 64 bit issues, both AMD and Intel computers work without a hitch; I only realize I am using 64 bits when I have to install third party binary libraries or applications; that it gets confusing whether you have the 32 bit and 64 bit libraries you need

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

HOT Apple Rumor

New rumor after Apple (APPL) confirmed it acquired Intrinsity for an undisclosed ammount (in the 100 to 200 Milion Range), is working on a new iPad. Among the specs:

10.1 Inch Screen @ 1152x720 (HD)
No Changes in the Physical size.
New Processor (A5) based on the ARM Dual-Core Cortex A9
New Battery Technology Boasts Operating time to 12Hours.
WiMAX or LTE module (depending on market).

Codename: Max-iPad.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Fake revolutionaries making the world a worse place. The Colombian FARK, their admirers and the "POWs"

I get feed-up and disgusted by the people who call themselves or become "revolutionaries", and latter, when TSHTF justify everything saying: "In the past it was the same".

Those who call themselves revolutionaries should be so to IMRPOVE the world and the Status Quo, and to IMPROVE their antics, ethics and to IMPROVE themselves as persons... Not to be like the old system.

Look at the so called "Fuerzas Armadas REVOLUCIONARIAS de Colombia (FARC)" (REVOLUTIONARY Armed Forces of Colombia). Them, as well as many of their sympathizers/ defenders/mystifies call the people they have in their power "Prisoners Of War" (POWs)...

Well then, let's indulge... the third article of the Geneva Convention for the Treatment of POWs (here the full text: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/y3gctpw.htm ) :

«In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, AS A MINIMUM [emphasis mine], the following provisions:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;


(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by CIVILIZED [emphasis mine] peoples. »

¿Who in this open Blog will dare to tell me that the "POWs" that the FARC killed when the army tried to rescue them had a fair trial (d) and had their rights respected (a)?

¿What about the "POWs" in the middle of the jungle, with shackles up their legs, malnourished and with bad medical treatment do they comply with provisions (a) and
(c)?

¿What is going to be the excuse?:
¿That the prisons in Colombia are as bad (but you can bet that the FARC prisoners received calls, letters and visits from their families)?

¿That the "POWs" in the jungle had the same food and doctors that their captors had (not only I doubt it, but I can bet that the captors had no shackles up their ankles, even without the chains)?.

¿That the "gringos" did the same in Gitmo or Abu Gharib?


Well, no, those are not valid excuses or justifications...

Well then... ¿could we say that the FARC are a (some morons would wish) "belligerent" and "revolutionary" party which does not comply the MINIMUM conditions of the Geneva convention on the Treatment of POWs?

Well, if it is like that, they are not REVOLUTIONARIES, They are animals, savages, Yahoos, in the tradition of the stories of J. Swift!

Sorry about the rant, this is a very sensitive issue for me and my family.

Salud!

WYF-89-xxx99