For a long time the Internet was a veritable treasure trove of howtos and tutorials; this is people (mostly) selflessly sharing the stuff that’d taken them a lot to learn, in order to benefit the crowds. Philosophically, this has a lot to do with the Free Software movement. Most people wouldn’t realize it, but the “share freely” idea is what has propelled pieces of software such as Linux or Firefox to their current positions.

I digress. However, at some point, someone decided that a) the Internet was now fast enough to carry video, and b) people were too stupid to read and follow instructions. This brought about the unfortunate appearance of video tutorials. I usually rant against these, as I can still read faster than I can watch a video, where some random dude takes me step by step at their own pace (intead of at mine). Video tutorials also suck when you need some quick, compact piece of reference material to “refresh” your knowledge about a procedure, which would be better served by a 2-kb piece of text, instead of a 10-mb, 5-minute video.

Still, I must admit there are instances where a video tutorial makes the most sense; some steps in procedures are, indeed, better explained by following the actual action (and perhaps having a narrator telling you what the hell is going on).

I recently found myself needing to learn how to tie a bowtie. None of the text tutorials helped, no matter how well-written or illustrated they were. There is ONE crucial step that basically necessitates a video for you to understand it. I spent 40 minutes wrestling with the text-and-pictures instructions. The video made it clear in under a minute.

So, without further ado, if you EVER need to learn how to tie a bow tie, don’t bother with anything else: these three videos will show you how it’s done.

The first is the one that best explains the CRUCIAL step of “finding the hole”.

The second one goes into a bit more detail, I hate this guy who says “go ahead and” all the time, but his explanations are good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0g31zufr0

The final one is hilarious from the way the woman “handles” his male-model, but it’s also instructional and explains the crucial step adequately.

Enjoy!

So my iPhone fell and got damaged. To its credit I have to say I did hit it pretty hard several times in the past, and it’d survived. However this time it didn’t, and I had to get a replacement. I had to pay for it since it was out of warranty. However the truly painful thing was spending one week without the perks of the modern smartphone.

I had to dig out my trusty 5-year-old Nokia 7210 (not the SuperNova, I mean the original funky-buttoned 7210), a stylish and compact phone which, however, is pretty featureless by modern standards. You can talk on the phone, send SMS (barely; I don’t know how I sent messages without a full QWERTY keyboard) and that’s about it. It has no camera, no network access, the screen is only 128-color and uploading stuff requires a tedious conversion process, and it only supports 4-voice MIDI polyphonic tones.

This was due in no small part to the death of my Blackberry’s lame battery; the ‘berry would have been a decent temporary replacement for the iPhone,even though it’s not compatible with my data plan. So here’s a tip: when your phone is about to be left indefinitely in a drawer, remove the battery.

Being without the iPhone, what I missed the most was:

• The QWERTY keyboard, without a doubt, is the most-missed feature. Whether virtual or real, it’s a necessity if you plan on composing a lot of text.
• The camera, believe it or not, is really useful for a lot of purposes.
• Synchronization with my computer’s address book. A lesser phone can do it but the Nokia lacked connectivity (only infrared).
• The browser, being able to access the internet anywhere, anytime has become a true necessity.
• E-mail. Yes, also not being able to receive emails periodically or, at least, on demand, is crippling and makes me feel out of touch and claustrophobic.
• Music, I guess it’s a case of “if you have it, you will use it”. Somehow carrying the iPod around in addition to the Nokia didn’t seem like a good idea.

What I didn’t miss:

• Ringtones. However weak the Nokia’s ringtone support is, it’s very loud and adequate, and my favorite ringtone ever (acceleration.mid) was available. I like it so much, I made an MP3 of it and loaded it on the iPhone.
• GPS. It’s cool to have it but I really don’t use it all that often.
• Most of my games. I don’t play on the iPhone that often. I must point out that neither the Nokia nor the iPhone had the “snakes” game from older (and newer) Nokia phones. I guess this 7210 got stuck in the past.

Also in case you hadn’t noticed, the entire point of this rant was so that I could have a new post before the 12th and thus keeping my blog updated “more than once every 6 months”.

La Jornada reporta que, casualmente, dos de los puentes que se están construyendo en el DF se terminarán en Junio y no en Agosto como estaba planeado.

Pero claro que los quieren poner “en funcionamiento” antes de las elecciones en Julio; por eso es tan “atinado” el adelanto de las obras, que como de costumbre en el GDF, se malterminarán a marchas forzadas, y varios meses después aún se verán obreros dando los últimos toques como ha pasado con el segundo piso de periférico, el distribuidor vial de Zaragoza, los puentes de eje 3 Oriente y un sinfín de obras.

Y por más que la capital y en general todo el país requieran de esta infraestructura, es absurdo que los aceleren de esa manera únicamente para “cumplir” antes de las elecciones y darle, aunque ellos digan que no es así, un uso electoral a lo que en realidad es el TRABAJO del gobierno. Porque por muy discretos que se quieran ver, deberían darse cuenta de que la gente no se chupa el dedo y se da cuenta a meses de distancia, cuando se hacen estas maniobras electoreras que constituyen un insulto a la gente que paga las obras con su dinero, como para que luego nos las vengan a “vender” a cambio de nuestro voto.

I’ve just released BerryUnitConverter 1.7. New units were added. Get it at the usual place.

Muchas naciones, entre ellas México, han recorrido un largo y tortuoso camino para lograr su independencia, defenderse de otros países, y lograr un poco de avance y desarrollo. Toda la sangre y todo el sudor derramados en nombre del país hacen que para mucha gente el concepto de “patria” sea sagrado e intocable, y se llegue a extremos insospechados para defenderlo.

En México hay varios artículos de la constitución y otras leyes que proveen un marco jurídico para garantizar que la patria y sus símbolos sean respetados. Por ejemplo el artículo 33 de La Constitución dice

LOS EXTRANJEROS NO PODRAN DE NINGUNA MANERA INMISCUIRSE EN LOS ASUNTOS POLITICOS DEL PAIS.

La LEY SOBRE EL ESCUDO, LA BANDERA Y EL HIMNO NACIONALES dice:

Los particulares podrán usar la Bandera Nacional en sus vehículos, exhibirla en sus lugares de residencia o de trabajo. En estos casos la Bandera podrá ser de cualquier dimensión y con el escudo impreso en blanco y negro. El particular observará el respeto que corresponde al símbolo nacional y tendrá cuidado en su manejo y pulcritud.

Estas leyes que suenan completamente razonables han sido sin embargo tergiversadas por el actual gobierno de México. Sobre el mismo sobran expletivos pero me los voy a ahorrar, no vaya a haber una “ley para proteger la imagen del gobierno contra víboras y tepocatas” en la cual vayamos a caer.

En lugar de eso me voy a remitir a los puros hechos. Primero, “El gobierno mexicano investiga si el cantante hispano-francés Manu Chao violó el artículo 33 de la Constitución mexicana, que prohíbe a los extranjeros inmiscuirse en asuntos políticos al hablar de terrorismo de Estado“. Lo que hizo Manu Chao fue llamar a la matanza de Atenco en 2006 “terrorismo de estado”. Exactamente cómo constituye esto “inmiscuirse en asuntos políticos”, siendo que la declaración se dio en el contexto de un concierto y no corresponde más que a un comentario sin ninguna intención de injerencia en la política o quehacer en México, queda completamente sin explicación. Así pues, el gobierno mexicano busca una “sanción” por un comentario político. Supongo que el siguiente paso será tener micrófonos en todos los restaurantes porque la política es un tema habitual de conversación y es un hecho que el pobre desempeño histórico del gobierno mexicano, y en particular de  los gobiernos panistas que azotan con el fuete de su incompetencia al país desde el año 2000, siempre deja mucho de qué hablar, y no siempre en los términos más halagadores.

Desde luego que el gobierno mexicano no dijo ni pío sobre la reciente visita de Hillary Clinton, que obviamente viene a inmiscuirse, no solamente como observadora; tampoco sobre la visita del presidente francés Sarkozy, que fue un escándalo en ambos países por las impropiedades que se cometieron por ambas partes. No, esto se hace contra un artista y no persigue otro fin que dar la impresión de que “el gobierno sí hace algo”.

El otro caso quizá deja un poco más de duda: Empresa editorial es sancionada por violar la Ley sobre el Escudo, la Bandera y el Himno Nacionales, en un video publicado en Internet. Como parte de un “comercial artístico”, alguien portando una bandera de México se roba algo. Desde luego la Secretaría de Gobernación se rasga las vestiduras y se lanza con todo contra la empresa productora del video, que inmediatamente recula y lo retira en medio de profusas disculpas, todo ello no obstante que la ley en cuestión es completamente ambigua y deja a la completa interpretación de (quien más) la autoridad los conceptos de “respeto”, “manejo” y “pulcritud”.

De nuevo es aplicar criterios distintos para alcanzar un impacto mediático y una impresión de “estamos trabajando”. La bandera de México se ha visto en infinidad de lugares y personas que cometen crímenes, la pregunta es, ¿por qué la SG no persigue a los asaltantes que visten ropa con banderas de México?

La conclusión que se puede sacar de estos dos artículos es la de una desesperación por parte del gobierno, que incapaz de obtener resultados en los rubros realmente importantes (seguridad pública, economía, migración, derechos humanos) queda reducido a encontrar estas “leyecitas” obscuras y cuyo fin, quizá alguna vez loable, se utiliza ahora para coartar la libertad de expresión y para dar al gobierno algo qué hacer, contra gente legítima y honesta, en lugar de dedicarse a combatir a los verdaderos criminales.

BerryUnitConverter has been released. Featuring conversions for pennyweight, micrometers and millimeter (can’t believe I’d forgotten that one). Get it at the usual place.

El secretario de hacienda de México, Agustín Carstens, ha hecho un pésimo trabajo y por lo tanto es uno de los funcionarios más odiados en el país, al grado de que, al inaugurar el mundial de beisbol en México, se llevó una rechifla de 5 minutos. Aún así tuvo la valentía de lanzar la pelota inicial de este importante evento deportivo. Y digo “valentía” porque, a pesar del odio que le tienen, Carstens jamás ha dudado en exhibir su obesa figura en cuanto evento público se presenta.

Carstens es el estereotipo mexicano del detestable “banquero” con nariz de cerdito, obeso pero siempre en un elegante traje. Mucho se le ha criticado sobre su gordura, y sobre cómo es un insulto que el secretario de hacienda exhiba semejante masa corporal, evidencia de un comer abundante, en un país donde la lucha diaria para muchos es simplemente el conseguir alimento para subsistir diariamente.

La decencia debe ser característica de un político, pero en México ya no les queda ni decencia ni vergüenza: más allá de su “excelente”  trabajo hundiendo al país en una crisis de inseguridad y económica,  solamente se regocijan “viéndole el trasero” a Carla Bruni, de visita oficial en México. Qué pena me da ser del mismo país que estos “marranos” (con perdón de Carstens) a los que solamente les faltaba chiflarle a la primera dama francesa.

La Jornada reporta que la Bolsa Mexicana de Valores cambiará su horario de operación del 9 de Marzo al 3 de Abril, fechas en las cuales la diferencia de horario de verano entre Estados Unidos y México crea un defasamiento inesperado de una hora. El mercado bursátil mexicano abrirá a las 07:30 horas, tiempo local y cerrará operaciones a las 14.00 horas.

Aquí queda de manifiesto el borreguismo y necedad de seguir con el cacareado horario de verano; Esta medida inútil en México se implementó en un momento en el cual el partido en el poder tenía “capital político” para impulsar dicha medida, a un altísimo costo de descontento social.

Las causas reales del “horario de verano” es para tener paridad con Estados Unidos, para operaciones comerciales. Nótese que ni siquiera en Estados Unidos se le tiene completa fe al susodicho horario, pues en Arizona no se implanta esta medida, y como siempre México (Sonora) donde le conviene tampoco lo implementa (¿no que era para ahorrar energía? ¿por qué no se aplica parejo?).

Ahora, ante la imposibilidad de modificar esta medida por la endeble posición del PAN en las cámaras, y la cercanía de las elecciones, para ajustarse al cambio que el año pasado se dio en Estados Unidos, donde otro necio (George Bush) decidió ampliar dos semanas a cada lado el horario de verano, la BMV se deja de tapujos y al cambiar sus horarios de trabajo, levantándose una hora más temprano con tal de ganar dinero como la ristra de avaros sedientos de dinero que son, nos da a los detractores del horario de verano la razón, para decirles lo siguiente:

“SI QUIEREN TENER UNA HORA MÁS DE LUZ, LEVÁNTENSE MÁS TEMPRANO, BOLA DE FLOJOS”.

Y como lo prueba la BMV, cuando hay interés de por medio, bien que se puede. No se vale que al resto de la gente nos obliguen a levantarnos más temprano (sí, el flojo soy yo, ¡y qué!)

Risk is a constant for today’s companies. Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM (well, maybe not so much with IBM), Toyota… they all take risks developing and testing new technologies. The risk lies in the amount of money and resources they devote to creating new technology. When said technology involves keeping a team to upgrade, fix and evolve it, the risk multiplies. The risk is mitigated if the technology is successful and provides a reasonable return on investment. Indeed, the whole point of “risking” your resources is so that created technology might prove a commercial success and yield the company many times the investment.

However there are times when things don’t go quite right and a company has to “cut its losses” and scrap a project or product altogether. Google has done it, IBM has done it (PS/2), Apple has done it (the Lisa). Microsoft has done it many times, and in doing it yet again they help me make my point today.

“Users of Microsoft’s 3D simulation platform have been rocked by news that the company has laid off off or reassigned most of the of the platform’s developers“,  reads an article at thestandard.com. Microsoft has a 3D simulation platform? Well yes, as part of their venerable Flight Simulator product (has the honor of being the first piece of commercial software I bought, circa 1988), it seems they had spawned off a 3D simulation product. Microsoft’s announced enhancements to the platform meant it was going to be targeted at markets such as real estate, city planning, and law enforcement. And developers for these industries were thrilled, and had already begun work on applications using Microsoft’s ESP technology.

Maybe the reason is the current economical climate; whatever, Microsoft seems to be shedding a lot of “non-essential” teams, among them the Flight Simulator team, followed closely by the ESP team. Streamlining seems like a sensible tactic for a profit-oriented business, right?

Users don’t seem to think that way.

“As a commercial developer who is currently working on two major ESP projects I can’t begin to express the concern I have hearing this news. I look forward to hearing from Microsoft as to the future plans for ESP”

“I’m gutted that this is probably no longer going to see the light of day. It looks like there were a lot of people working really hard to build a revolutionary product. It must be totally crushing for them to see all that work go to waste.”

‘my company used it for a solution and invested time and money into getting it approved and purchased. Microsoft sure handed us a raw deal for taking a gamble on their platform.’

Anyway, my point with all this is that proprietary software is a bad idea. Microsoft is the embodiment of all we loathe in a software company; however much they talk about being business partners, the current schism is a sample, a reminder that, should your business no longer be profitable to them, Microsoft won’t hesitate to hang you out to dry. The bottom line is all that matters to them. And their use and selling of proprietary technologies means that, should the worst happen, you’re left with no recourse but to throw all your investment away and start anew with some other product, hoping that that other company won’t do the same to you.

Rather than risking this, why not go free software? Things would be very different if Microsoft opened up ESP; it’s not like they’re going to profit from that anymore. That way companies with a reasonably talented developer pool might take the project forward, as has happened with many open-sourced, formerly-commercial products (Blender comes to mind). That’s a company that protects your investment. Microsoft just ripped them off, plain and simple.

For all those companies developing products using ESP, it’s likely their business is not primarily software development. Thus they chose to go with a commercial, specialized software vendor. And look what happened to them! Even if they don’t have the in-house expertise to develop something like ESP, a pooling of resources or funding a non-profit tasked with developing and freely releasing an ESP substitute would make sense. A law enforcement organization sees no competition from a real estate, architecture or urban planning company, so what’s it to them if they use the same, freely-developed product on which to base their custom offerings? (look at Unreal Engine and what ID Software does with their Quake FPS engines; also, ID software has open-sourced their old releases, which rings true with what I’m ranting about here). Again, as long as it’s not their core business, there’s no problem with them cooperating in the creation of a component for their main project.

Misery loves company and at least, through heated discussion in MSDN, those users who were wronged by Microsoft have come in contact with each other and might, if they have the vision to venture into the world of free software, have an opportunity to make sure this never happens again to them or others wanting similar technologies.

OK, so I happily hack away on my  Rails application on a Debian box with Ruby 1.8.7 and Rails 2.1.0, and then deploy to a Fedora 8 server with Ruby 1.8.6 and Rails 2.2.2. All of a sudden a particular release causes Passenger to spit an error page on application startup. The key error was:

undefined method `empty?’ for nil:NilClass

Now I’m combing all over my code to find where I’m using “empty?” but I’m sure it’s somewhere that gets run on application startup, otherwise it wouldn’t show up when Passenger tries to start the application. But I find nothing and I’m about to shoot myself.

Following the trace I end up hacking Ruby’s erb.rb file, as there appear to be some bugs in this; indeed, this one from 1.8.6 is different from what I have in 1.8.7, so the app runs fine here. I try to fix instances where empty? might get called on a nil object, but after fixing 3 of these the app stops responding altogether. Hmm, so something, somewhere, depends on erb.rb’s buggy behavior. Best to leave it alone.

HOWEVER, on the deployment server, running with script/server works fine; it’s only when using Passenger that things blow up.

Finally I find this thread that points me in the right direction:

One of the users dropped some
JPEG files into the /app/views/static directory, and that seems to be
jamming up the works with 2.2.2.

Indeed, as part of my last set of revisions, I’d left several samples of static content I was converting into dynamically generated pages; sure enough, they included JPGs and whatnot. Just to be safe, I decided to move the entire directory into public to avoid any problems.

Now the app runs just peachy and I only wasted 2 hours chasing down this bug. Thanks to the guys at Nabble!

Eventually it all boils down to this Rails bug reported at Lighthouse. So hopefully it’ll be fixed soon. In the meanwhile, keep binary files out of your views subtree.

I’m attaching the entire Passenger error page, in case it’s useful to anyone. Mainly so that Google can find it faster for other people with this problem.

A note on Slashdot says “[Nintendo] has requested help in dealing with piracy overseas, both from the US government and from several other countries in particular. China, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and Paraguay are listed as the greatest contributing nations to piracy of the company’s products.”

Why are Wii so Expensive?

Nintendo needs to realize that there’s no way piracy will stop in Mexico unless they lower their prices. A Wii is almost twice as much in Mexico as it is in the USA, costing the equivalent of over 350 dollars here. Games aren’t much cheaper. And Wii Points cards are also twice as expensive here.

It’s also pretty hypocritical of Nintendo. Wiis are plentiful in Mexico, even at times when news of shortages elsewhere were common. The reason is that, since the Wii is so heavily marked up, Nintendo does profit more by selling here in Mexico than in the USA (similar to how they diverted shipments to Europe because higher prices there gave them more profits). However, while there are those mexicans (like me, sadly) who would indeed pay twice the price for the console, which is very convenient for Nintendo, the vast majority of the population can’t afford those prices. So they resort to piracy in order to get their games; buying stolen for their consoles; and (worst of all) buying an XBox instead, because the XBox is 60% the price of a Wii here in Mexico.

This will continue, however hard Nintendo tries to push mexican authorities, because they don’t care; Mexico is a land of impunity, where drug dealers get away with murdering and torturing, often in broad daylight. Obviously the authorities have their hands full and no time for a game company crying wolf because their products are getting pirated.  And anyway, it’s too easy for the “pirates” to bribe the police officers who come to seize their goods and try to arrest them; they, too, are starving and would welcome a few thousand pesos in bribes (or, why not, a shiny new stolen Wii for their kids).

Arrr!

So if Nintendo wants to reduce pirating of their products in Mexico (they can’t stop it altogether), they need to make sure their prices are more in line with what they charge internationally (The USA, specifically). That way more people can afford them legitimately, and there will be less incentive for piracy. However, culturally, legally and politically, the complete erradication of piracy in Mexico is an impossibility. Just ask Microsoft.

(c) La Jornada, 2009

I’ve written before about how people in Mexico have zero road culture, which leads to a complete breakdown of road infrastructure. A lot of this infrastructure’s correct operation depends on people abiding by the law. Yet most people do not. Usually the consequences are from nil (parking in a handicapped space for a moment, leaving your car double-parked, parking in front of a house’s garage) to a relatively minor fine (parking illegally and THEN getting towed because the  tow truck happened to be nearby).

However, when physical security of moving vehicles is dependent on the assumption that people will respect the law, things do indeed break down.

The metrobús is a Bus Rapid Transit system, which opened in 2005 in one important Mexico City avenue, and has enjoyed (in my opinion) great success, reducing transport times, improving traffic flow for private vehicles, and getting rid of dangerous Peseros along Insurgentes avenue. Everybody in Mexico knows Peseros are the worst offenders when it comes to traffic violations, where they blatantly run red lights, invade lanes, and generally do what they please without regard for others. So their sole disappearance was a blessing.

The price to be paid for this was that, since the metrobus runs on central lanes, left turns are forbidden along the avenue’s 26-km length. The reason is obvious: at the very least a significant disruption of traffic might occur if the bus has to stop for a car that’s trying to left-turn. At worst, the metrobus, a double-length behemoth, might hit another car with deadly consequences.

It’s been 3 years of the Metrobus operating, and this year a second line (running along eje 4 sur) was opened. This has caused an uproar because it appears this line has been misdesigned, creating several “death traps” and spots where, due to lack of space, cars and pedestrians have a tough time getting through. This has led to 18 accidents since the new line opened.

Some asshole in the government who needs urgent math lessons said that “98% of accidents involving the metrobus are due to private car driver’s imprudence”. For starters, 98% of 18  is 17.64, and assigning partial blames is absurd.

Anyway, what’s indeed clear is that most of the accidents are due to lack of culture by drivers. The all-too-common notion that “nobody wants to have an accident and if I just swerve violently in front of someone they’ll stop and swear at me but I’ll get my way” fails when the “someone” is a 15-ton monster  traveling at 60 km/h with 30-meter stopping distances.

Sometimes, then, images are worth a thousand words, so I’ll leave you with the conclusion that while it’s necessary to guarantee that people operating a car need to have a minimum of road education, it’s also not going to happen because the “it’s ok just this one time” mentality rules, and as long as we’re giving driving licenses to anyone without a driving test (right, in Mexico there are no driving tests, you just pay for your license and you get it) things like this are going to happen. I also leave you with an eye-opening video of exactly whose fault it was for the accident, a picture of which is at the top of this message.

I just uploaded a new version of BerryUnit Converter. Version 1.5 fixes some conversions that were wrong (sorry!) and adds a few new ones.

Get it at the usual place.

A new version of BerryUnitConverter is up. This one adds data units as well as Blackberry Storm compatibility. Let me know of any problems. Get it at the usual place.

So today as we take the dogs for a walk and go to Burger King to get lunch, I’m waiting with the beasts in the parking lot. Since nobody respects handicapped parking, the lot’s handler has placed two carts, one on each parking space, to reserve them for people who actually need them. However, big mistake, he left enough room for one car between the carts.

So indeed, this cretin arrives, squeezes his car between the carts and in the process uses up not just one, but TWO handicapped spaces. He leaves the car running so his daughter inside can enjoy A/C; never mind that the idiot has the sunroof open, letting hot air inside. He then goes into the store and spends I don’t know how long inside. I don’t know because I left. The best part? there were open spaces elsewhere in the parking lot.

Here in Mexico you see this sort of thing all the time. People don’t seem to respect the law or regulations or signs or anything. They just do what they want, and usually nobody even tries to stop them. In any case they usually get off with some snide remark.

So people double-parking  at school to pick up the kids, using up handicapped spaces, or even two parking spots (nice semi you got there, idiot), running traffic lights because, hey, nobody’s coming anyway so why should I wait?, or parking in front of other people’s houses “I’ll only be a minute, thanks!”, it’s bread and butter here.

A chronic lack of respect for your co-citizens might speak badly of a few rude people if that’s all there was. However the phenomenon is rampant and happens more and more every day. So I have to think that it’s an education problem; people no longer think it’s necessary to be nice to your neighbor. Indeed, the consensus is now that “it’s better to come off an abusive cretin than a yielding loser”. Sorry but I’d rather not stay here long enough to start thinking that myself.