Miscelaneous
[to my English-only dear readers, this is going to be just Spanish, for my compatriots. I hope you don't mind :)]
Soy Abogado, al fin y al cabo. Y uno (el único?) realmente invicto: gane el 100% de mi/s juicio/s (fue UNO, pero muy importante para mi familia ;)). Y me pincharon donde más me duele: "investiga un poco primero antes de hablar".
Así que aquí va mi trabajito de unas horas de investigación y conclusiones sobre el tema.
Relación con fusión de Cablevisión y Multicanal
Algunos me argumentaron que el tema de la revocación de la licencia de Fibertel no tenía nada, pero *nada* que ver con la fusión de Cablevisión y Multicanal. Les recuerdo:
En 2002, la Inspección General de Justicia de la Nación aprueba la absorción societaria de Fibertel-Cablevisión. Después, Multicanal se fusiona con Cablevisión, que la IGJ aprueba en enero de 2009. Año y medio después, la SECOM revoca la licencia de Fibertel en la resolución 100/2010.
En los considerandos (los "que...") se nombran varios articulos del decreto 764/2000, mencionando tanto el art. 16.2.5 por la causal de "cesión o transferencia a terceros de la licencia o el cambio de control social, que no hubiera sido autorizada", como el 16.2.7 de caducidad por "quiebra, disolucion y/o liquidacion del prestador", que tiene tratamiento especial en el 16.3.2 que establece que "16.3.2 La declaración de caducidad con causa en la declaración de quiebra, disolución o liquidación de la sociedad será aplicable sin necesidad de requerimiento previo alguno."
Está claro que la autorización de la IGJ de una fusión no implica automáticamente una autorización de transferencia de licencia entre las compañías involucradas en lo que es un ámbito totalmente distinto y responsabilidad de la SECOM. Cablevisión parece estar claramente operando sin licencia.
Sin embargo, Cablevision esgrime que ya era la empresa controladora de Fibertel desde antes de la fusion, y por consiguiente no hubo cambio de titularidad. Esa parece ser la cuestion de fondo, y el error formal consecuente de no haber pedido la transferencia que como se nota en el siguiente apartado, es un tramite que no reviste mayor complejidad.
El gobierno quiere interpretar la norma en el sentido de que se trata de "caducidad con causa en la declaracion de quiebra, disolucion o liquidacion", una prevision que a mi entender se refiere a casos en que la empresa en cuestion desaparece de la faz de la tierra. Sin embargo, al tambien mencionar el articulo sobre "cesión o transferencia...que no hubiera sido autorizada" deja entrever el principal conflicto de su postura: puede interpretarse la aplicabilidad de una o la otra! Como muchas cosas en Derecho, efectivamente la interpretacion de las normas es un paso esencial al aplicarlas.
Y respecto a ello, la Ley Nacional de Procedimientos Administrativos establece en su Articulo 1:
Informalidad
c) Excusación de la inobservancia por los interesados de exigencias formales no esenciales y que puedan ser cumplidas posteriormente;
Asi que analicemos la importancia de la licencia, los requisitos de su emision, y si estamos ante una falta grave que amerita una sancion extrema y una disrupcion importante para los usuarios, o si estamos ante una exigencia formal no esencial que podria resolverse de alguna manera menos conflictiva.
Magnitud de la importancia de la licencia
Ahora, otro argumento esgrimido fue sobre lo grave de operar sin licencia, y como "no cualquiera" puede obtener una.
Veamos primero lo que debería haber hecho Cablevisión para obtener la transferencia o cesión de la licencia, establecido en el decreto 764/2000 citado por el gobierno mismo como causal de caducidad:
Artículo 13. Cesión o transferencia de la licencia
13.1 El Prestador podrá ceder o transferir la licencia, previa autorización de la Autoridad de Aplicación, la que no le podrá ser denegada si el Prestador transferente o cedente:
i) no registra deuda alguna con el Estado Nacional en concepto de: ...
ii) ha realizado las inversiones previstas en el inciso f) del apartado 10.1. del presente Reglamento;
iii) ha cumplido con los compromisos asumidos con el Estado Nacional relacionados con la prestación del servicio de telecomunicaciones; y
iv) ha dado cumplimiento a los requisitos y/o condiciones que su título original impone a la cesión o transferencia de su licencia, en caso de corresponder;
v) ha obtenido, en su caso, la autorización para la transferencia de la autorización y/o permiso de uso de frecuencias radioeléctricas en los términos de la reglamentación correspondiente; y siempre que el Prestador cesionario:
a) hubiera presentado la información requerida por el apartado 9.1. el presente Reglamento.
b) manifieste y acepte, bajo declaración jurada, que conoce y se obliga a cumplir todas las obligaciones asumidas por el Prestador cedente, con motivo de la licencia objeto de la cesión.
13.2. La Autoridad de Aplicación deberá expedirse, respecto de la solicitud de cesión o transferencia de la licencia, dentro del plazo de sesenta (60) días, contados a partir de la fecha de presentación de la misma.
Básicamente un libre deuda y una declaración jurada de continuar con las obligaciones del cedente.
Podría argumentarse que en realidad es MUCHO más que eso, y que, de nuevo, "no cualquiera" puede obtener una licencia nueva. La página de la CNC donde se detallan los requisitos es casi irrisoria para la envergadura que le dio el gobierno al problema y la sanción aplicada. Sí, yo creo que hasta Clarius podría conseguir esa licencia en tiempo record (dicen que solo cuesta ARS/$ 2000). Y sin ánimo de ofender a ninguno en particular, basta mirar la lista de prestadores para darse cuenta de que está MUY lejos de ser rocket-science.
Así que sigo sin entender como espera el gobierno que creamos que nos están salvando de un delincuente peligrosísimo (en vez de ocuparse de los delincuentes de verdad, alguno podría agregar).
El gobierno en su evaluacion de la gravedad de no haber pedido tal transferencia, dice:
...sobre todo cuando lo que se encuentra bajo tutela regulatoria fuera otorgado "intuito personae", ya que debe necesariamente corroborarse que en los cambios de control social y/o en las transferencias se cumplen los requisitos de especialidad contemplados en la ley, o que las modificaciones introducidas no alteran la especie y no desvirtuan las condiciones del otorgamiento.
En el articulo anterior sobre requisitos para la transferencia, salvo el apartado sobre inversiones y sobre continuar con lo ya comprometido como servicio, no parece haber ninguna otra causal para impedirla. De vuelva, parece una mera cuestion formal, si los requisitos basicos (bastante elementales) se cumplen. Y en tal caso, la peticion no le podrá ser denegada, tal como dice la misma reglamentacion.
Ahora, hay al menos dos grandes razones por las que creo que el gobierno va a estar en problemas en la justicia: proporcionalidad de la sanción, y fallas de procedimiento.
Hubo sanción?
Alguno sugirio que en realidad no hubo sanción, sino que simplemente la licencia dejo de existir porque la empresa licenciataria dejo de existir. El articulo 16.2.7 de la resolucion 764/2000 citada como causal (pagina 6 de la resolucion 100) esta expresamente en la seccion sobre sanciones:
Artículo 16. Sanciones. Condiciones de caducidad de las licencias.
16.2.7 Quiebra, disolución y/o liquidación del Prestador.
Bastante claro para mi que se trata de una sanción. Para abundar, la misma resolucion del gobierno agrega (pagina 5):
Que la sanción prevista en razon del incumplimiento mencionado es la declaracion de la caducidad de la Licencia y los registros de los servicios.
Claramente estamos hablando de una sancion.
Proporcionalidad de la sanción
Creo que hay grandes chances de que la justicia falle en contra del gobierno (o sea VOS Y YO con nuestros impuestos). La principal razón es la Ley Nacional de Procedimientos Administrativos, y que indica claramente:
Requisitos esenciales del acto administrativo.
ARTICULO 7. Son requisitos esenciales del acto administrativo los siguientes:
Finalidad.
f) habrá de cumplirse con la finalidad que resulte de las normas que otorgan las facultades pertinentes del órgano emisor, sin poder perseguir encubiertamente otros fines, públicos o privados, distintos de los que justifican el acto, su causa y objeto. Las medidas que el acto involucre deben ser proporcionalmente adecuadas a aquella finalidad.
Está claro entonces que es indispensable la proporcionalidad entre la sanción y la infracción. Las sanciones posibles a aplicar por parte de la CNC/SECOM están estipuladas en el decreto 1185/90, que contempla:
Art. 38.- SANCIONES
a) Las sanciones consistirán en apercibimientos, multas, caducidad total o parcial del régimen de exclusividad cuando lo hubiere, y caducidad de la licencia, autorización o permiso.
b) Las sanciones se graduarán en atención a:
1) La gravedad y reiteración de la infracción.
2) Las dificultades o perjuicios que la infracción ocasione al servicio prestado, a los usuarios y a terceros.
3) El grado de afectación del interés público.
4) El grado de cumplimiento de las metas obligatorias y no obligatorias y demás condiciones fijadas en la licencia o permiso respecto del servicio en cuestión, si las hubiere.
Del articulo a) se desprende que la sanción aplicada por la SECOM es la MAXIMA permitida por la reglamentación vigente. Y yo me pregunto cómo es justificable la proporcionalidad de esa medida en el caso de una empresa de reconocida trayectoria como Fibertel (y Cablevisión) que ofrece un servicio donde la gran mayoría de los usuarios están satisfechos (mucho más satisfechos que yo por ejemplo con Telefónica/Speedy) y donde parece totalmente ausente un grave perjuicio al interés público, a los usuarios, a terceros o al servicio mismo.
d) La aplicación de sanciones será independiente de la obligación de reintegrar o compensar las tarifas indebidamente percibidas de los usuarios, con actualización e intereses, o de indemnizar los perjuicios ocasionados al estado, a los usuarios o a terceros por la infracción.
Por supuesto que corresponde la aplicación de multas por la infracción, no hay discusión al respecto.
Fallas de procedimiento
De igual relevancia, es la desprolijidad con la que el gobierno manejo este tema, para lograr un efecto "sorpresa" o no sé bien que.
La Ley Nacional de Procedimientos Administrativos ya citada, determina el procedimiento para declarar la caducidad del acto administrativo (la otorgación de la licencia a Fibertel):
Caducidad.
ARTÍCULO 21.- La Administración podrá declarar unilateralmente la caducidad de un acto administrativo cuando el interesado no cumpliere las condiciones fijadas en el mismo, pero deberá mediar previa constitución en mora y concesión de un plazo suplementario razonable al efecto.
A lo que se suma el decreto q crea la CNC y reglamenta su funcionamiento y atribuciones (http://www.infoleg.gov.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/0-4999/3647/norma.htm), q dice:
Art. 25.-
CADUCIDADES.
La declaración de caducidad de las licencias, autorizaciones o permisos por el PODER EJECUTIVO NACIONAL o la Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, según el caso, se sujetará a las reglas del debido proceso adjetivo, en particular las contenidas en la Ley de Procedimientos Administrativos y su reglamentación.
Rematado por el artículo de sanciones:
Art. 38.-
SANCIONES
h) En la aplicación de las sanciones se seguirá el procedimiento que establezca al respecto la Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones el que deberá asegurar el derecho de defensa del imputado. A tales efectos deberá notificársele la imputación y otorgársele un plazo no inferior a DIEZ (10) días hábiles administrativos para la producción del descargo pertinente.
Todo este asunto suena a tirado de los pelos, desproporcionado y desprolijo, tal como se hizo con la Ley de Medios en su momento tambien. Y esto explota justo días después de la famosa cena de Magneto contra el gobierno. Feliz coincidencia!
¡Vanidad, pura vanidad!
I heard these guys have great plans on how to secure the universe...
My "baseline" phone is my Nokia N95, so my quality and functionality bar is high. I'll go straight to the point here:
- Bluetooth audio: doesn't support the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) profile, meaning you can't use stereo headsets that support it to listen to music. I've got the BlueAnt X5 which work flawlessly with my Nokia N95 but only work as phone headsets with the iPhone. This also means that it doesn't work either with my very cool Pioneer bluetooth-enabled stereo. This is a bummer as I have a very nice user experience with the N95 and the stereo: I can listen to my music through bluetooth, and as soon as an incoming call arrives, the music fades out and then pauses, and I get to answer the call *from the stereo*. That means I can use the stereo speakers to listen to my caller, and I got the provided microphone installed on the windshield close to the driver steat on the left, so I got a very comfortable hands-free experience. And it sounds much better than the (rather old) Morotola HS820 bluetooth headset I used before, according to friends and family.
- Bluetooth sync: you can pair the iPhone with a laptop, but can't sync over bluetooth. Again, this works great on the N95. I hate wires.
- Keyboard without T9: it's pretty much unusable. Tying to hit the diminute keys is so painful. The fact that the pressed key gets zoomed after you click it is of little help: it just shows me that I pressed the wrong one most of the time. An on-screen keyboard without T9 is a serious no-go for me. I can type MUCH faster on my N95.
I tried the TenGO Thumb for PocketPC a while ago, and THAT's what the iPhone should have provided, nothing less. It's the only thing that can make a querty keyboard bereable:
Imagine if the iPhone keyboard had something like that:
I'd only have to worry about hitting those 6 big keys (I surrounded each with a different color just so that you see what I mean), and the software would take care of disambiguating what I meant while typing. In my experience, this is the only productive way to type with your fingers.
- Text input autocomplete is also very annoying: in order to select the suggested word, you just press Space, whereas if you don't want it, you have to click on the suggested word (?!). This reflects too much confidence on their suggestions. If you happen to write messages in more than one language (I type most of it in spanish), then you're going to have a very annoying typing experience, clicking on the suggested words to get rid of them (I usually forget and as soon as I press Space, I get a completely different word than I typed, and have to go back and delete it all).
- Outlook sync: I hate outlook, granted, but it's a fact of business life (especially if you're so close to Microsoft as we are). The iPhone can't sync with mails in Outlook at all. Contacts is fine, but no emails is a serious issue.
- SIP: I know this is an advanced feature of the N95. I doubt there are many phones that support this feature. On the N95, you enter your SIP credentials, and it will automatically dial through the VoIP server whenever you are connected to Wi-Fi and the server can be reached. Now that I have an Asterisk Appliance at the office (it's been a couple weeks only, so I'll post some other day about the experience), I totally see myself depending on this feature quite a bit, specially when I'm travelling. I will just be able to pick up my cell (even if I'm using a SIM card from another country) and call home at a local argentinean call cost. They will also be able to call me to my office extension, and I can pick up on my cell. Something I was seriously looking forward, which I can't do with the iPhone.
- Dialing: the phone dialing experience is suboptimal. In my case, I'm typically calling the same 2-4 numbers all the time. On the iPhone you have to:
- Press the Home button
- Unlock the phone with the finger sliding at the bottom
- Look at the phone and push the Phone button
- Look at the phone and push the Favorites button (I need to do this because I may have switched the "tab" before)
- Look at the phone and select the contact
On my N95, I go: - Unlock the phone by sliding the screen
- Push the "Call" button
- Look at the phone and select the contact you previously called (you get the list of recent calls, 4 contact names fit on the screen, and you can scroll for more)
- Push the "Call" button again
What's important to notice besides the additional steps on the iPhone, is that I have to be looking at the phone most of the time. With the N95 I only have to glance at it *once*.
One feature that neither provides which I now realize I depended on quite a bit on my previous Windows Mobile phones (O2 Atom Exec and Audiovox SMT5600) was to start typing the phone number and have the contact list automatically filtered until the right contact/phone was displayed, at which point I would simply select it and call. Typically, I'd only dial the first 3 digits before I got a full match (or a narrowed 2-3 contacts list that I could select from)
- UMTS/HSDPA 3G broadband: this one is an unnaceptable oversight by Apple. Either they spent too much time making the iPhone to the point that their "broadband" technology is already obsolete, or they are really convinced (wrongly) that ubiquitous wi-fi (especially outside the US) is a reallity. It is not, unfortunately, and mobile broadband access is pretty much the only ubiquitous choice in many countries. This might sound like a corner feature to you, but according to some users, EDGE (iPhone's supported technology) is as much as 5 times slower than 3G. There are some rumours of a 3G iPhone coming to Europe, though, and I feel like this will happen sooner than later.
- Installing apps: unbelievable that I have to go through a hackerish "jailbreak" process in order to be able to install more apps on the phone.
- RSS reader: there are a lot of options for platforms like Symbian and Windows Mobile. I know it's a matter of time 'till the iPhone gets the same. Right now, the only reader I found sucks badly. This is almost a showstopper for me.
- GPS: ok, another one that most consumer phones don't have, but which the N95 nailed down. It would have been awesome to have this with the gorgeous iPhone screen :(
- Camera: a 2 megapixel "camera" is nothing more than a crappy toy that can never be used seriously as a camera. I can't even understand why a phone maker even bothers putting such a camera in a phone. Seriously, who wants to keep a memorable photo in such a terrible resolution? Add to that that pretty much all of the phones lack flash and autofocus, and it's really a useless feature. Compare that with the very nice 5 megapixel camera on the N95, which also has autofocus and flash. Here's the comparison just in case you're in doubt yet:
[daylight]
[low light]
Guess which photos are from which camera :p
Certainly I don't worry anymore about forgetting my camera when I travel:
[San Diego is gorgeous]
- Video recording: this is related to the previous one. With the N95, I can also shoot pretty good looking videos, although not so much under low-light conditions. But in daylight, it's quite good.
- Storage: fixed storage is another tough one to swallow. Storage capacity doubles about every year, so I know for a fact that one year from now (maybe much less if rumours are true?), a new iPhone will have twice or more as much storage. 8GB already feels tight for an iPod/media player device. With my N95, I can have as many microSDs as I want. It only takes 4 x 2GB nowadays to get comparable storage. And 4GB microSD are already hitting the market. I can easily imagine a not-so-far future where just one microSD with 8GB will give me the equivalent of today's iPhone storage. And I will still be able to have more than one. There's even a new version of the N95 coming out that already has 8GB internal storage. Suck that tangerine, iPhone (ok, that's an argentinean saying :p).
- Fixed battery: batteries aren't forever. With any other phone, I just have to buy a replacement battery pretty much anywhere, swap it and be done without any "phone downtime". With the iPhone, I'll have to bring it to an Apple store, maybe leave it there for a day (if I'm lucky, I guess), and get it back later with a new battery. What am I suppossed to use in the meantime? Are they going to give me a replacement while they fix mine?
"Minor" annoynces:
- TV-Out: I know this may be available soon, but right now, it isn't. I use this feature quite a bit on my N95, where I carry a microSD with TV shows/screencasts/conference videos/interviews and play them wherever I am. I know I could have an AppleTV, a media center extender on XBox, etc., etc., but you can't beat the simplicity of plugging the phone to the TV (and I can do this even when I'm not at home). Showing family videos is also another great use. Photos don't look very good from the N95, though.
And btw, I'm pretty sure to use the feature on the iPhone, I'll have to buy a $19.99 cable :p (I got everything needed for my N95 in the box). I just hate that on Apple.
- Audio out: can't connect a standard headphone or line-in cable to an amplifier?! I had to buy a $10 Belkin adapter to be able to do so, and it just ruins the experience having that long big adapter on my pocket. Taking the already quite tall iPhone plus the long adapter out of your pocket is something you can't just do fast enough.
- iTunes: it's probably no news to anyone, but this software sucks. Being tied to it for everything I want to sync to the iPhone is just too much. I doubt *anyone* would be willing to drop Picassa for iTunes.
So, I join Jeff's "no iPhone v1" crusade:
Finally, it's free and for everyone: http://iphone.unlock.no/
Amazing just how fast this happened. I wonder when companies will realize that trying to fight against motivated hackers is a futile attempt and a complete waste of time (just like DRM, btw).
I can't believe that we still have to "fish" for the few power outlets on airports, and frequently end up sitting on the floor, on a remote corner, below a phone booth, or next to a trash can.
This is especially annoying if you miss your flight, as you can be in an uncomfortable place (or consuming your precious battery life) for hours.
Ok, probably the solution is not to have more power outlets, but batteries that last 16 hours. Granted, but until then, I would be useful to have more of them.
Pretty much every day, I get the following stupid dialog from Vista when I'm trying to connect to a VPN:
Note that even when I've an active wireless connection shown in the dialog, the dialog still doesn't allow me to connect to a VPN supposedly because I don't have such a connection :S.
The workaround is to click on the Open Network and Sharing Center, from there click on the Manage Network Connections link at the left:
And finally from the dialog that comes up, right-click on the VPN connection and select Connect. Weird enough, it looks like this way of connecting is not checking for the "active Internet connection" as the other dialog:
A much faster solution, though, is to select the Create Shortcut option from the same context menu, which will place a shortcut to the connection on the desktop. That shortcut doesn't check for the active connection either.
Networking in Vista is SOOOO broken!!! (right-clicking on the connection to disconnect takes forever to show up the conext menu, connecting to anything always shows the useless "Successfully connected" dialog every damn time, etc.)
About half a year ago, Scott Hanselman got me into baby signing. He was so enthusiastic about it that he succeeded in infusing the same excitement in me. I have a 15 months-old daughter Aylen (and a 3 year-old one too, Agustina), which was about 11 months back then. Make sure you read his initial post on baby signing as well as his update when his son Zenzo was 14 months old.
Just after a couple weeks signing 3 words to her (duck, drink and milk), she signed the duck! I was blown away by how fast she started with the first one, but it took another month for her to start picking up more and more signs. When she was exactly one year old (about a month after we started), I got a couple of books which tought me more techniques and approaches to signing to make it more effective. Three months later, she's able to sign: duck, drink, milk, cookie/cracker, eat, more, baby, take a bath, need heulp, hot, dog, cat, monkey, flower, shoes, hat, pain, water, sleep, silence (and clip, which Agustina uses at the kindergarten to also mean silence), dance (this one she made it up and we learned what she meant!). That's 22 words for a 15 months-old baby that can barely say Mom and Agus (her sister's nickname and the first thing she learnt to say :)). And there are many more that she understands but she's not signing yet.
Just like Scott felt, it's not just a matter of teaching her something to make her "smarter" early on. There's a new kind of connection that you can make with your baby. Aylen's face shines when she sees that we can listen to her needs and help her. She no longer cries when she's hungry or thirsty, or when she wants to take a bath. That's huge.
It's also a much better way of communicating when you need to explain something to her. For example, a couple nights ago she started to stand in the small wooden chairs we have for them to play. Agustina had tought her how to get on the chair to sit. But now she was standing on it just for fun (the fun of watching both my wife and myself getting angry and saying NO! to her :S). She just kept doing it, over and over, no matter how much we said to her. So I went to the excelent online ASL dictionary (the one for the sign language we're teaching her), found the signs for chair, sit and stand, and grabbed her and the chair for a "talk". I signed chair pointing repeatedly to it. Just after the third sign, she got the idea, and pointed to my bigger chair too, acknowledging that it was also a chair! I said "very good!!!", and started with the signs for sit, helping her to sit, and reinforcing that that was good. Next with stand, reinforcing with signs that that was bad. After three or four repetitions, with her standing and seeing the "bad"/no face and sitting and seeing the "good"/yes face, she got the point, and started trying to stand on the damn chair :). My wife says she got tired of listening to me, rather than learning, haha... (and she added "that's what we all do :p", but I digress)
If you have an older kid, it's even better, because you can engage him/her in teaching the little one too. We bought a couple DVDs from the Baby Signing Time collection (awesome stuff) which both Aylen and Agustina love. It's playing on my TV almost every day for at least a couple hours. It teaches new signs through songs and showing other babies doing them, and it does so while pronouncing the words in english. That may sound obvious to you, but we live in Argentina, so english is not our primary language. However, both girls are now learning the words in both english and spanish at the same time! So my baby signs "baby" when you say the word in english AND spanish too! It's simply amazing.
There were a few skeptics, granted, and there are still. The first concern they have is that teaching her to communicate so well through signs may delay her to speak. I read that this argument is similar to saying "don't let your kid crawl, it will delay him to walk". Talking is a more efficient medium than signing, just as walking is than crawling.
Moreover, I read that babies that signed actually learned to speak sooner and with less frustration because then can accompany the words they are trying to say with the corresponding sign, which greatly helps parents to understand them. This engages them more in trying to speak without feeling that nobody understands their babble. Also, this sign language counts as a second language they learn, activating neuron pathways that will supposedly help her to learn other languages easily in the future.
Only time will tell, but it's absolutely thrilling. So, if you've a 10-12 months baby, you should start signing right-away!!!
I've been thinking lately about the influence we (especially bloggers) have in the world through the internet. I know many guys with much more power (as in google page rank ;)) than myself, but nevertheless, I realize I can also cause quite some damage.
In my last post I wrote about my awful experience with a little hotel called Hotel Kappa. Just a day after I posted, google is showing my post right on the first search result page, right below the entry for the hotel main site. It's a powerful feeling, but do you think we should do this? I surely wanted to warn prospective customers, but would you be comfortable knowing that most probably a large percentage of them will not go there no matter if they fixed the issues I had? Or years from now?
I can almost hear "with great power comes great responsability"... ;). What do you think?
My turn to jump on this blog-game via EdJez, Scott Hanselman and Pablo Galiano :)
So I will also share five things most people don't know about me, and tag five other guys.
- I am probably the only professional developer (as in doing it for a living) in the world that cannot use the IANAL acronym, as I AM a lawyer, and from the most prestigious law school in Argentina, in addition :o). I am probably among the most successfull lawyers of all time, as I never ever lost a case. The only one I had, I won, and it was for my father.
- Similar to Peter, I never saw myself as a professional software developer, even though I started programming around 12, first with Basic and next year with Pascal, and then Visual Basic. I always saw it as a hobby, something fun I could do instead of playing football with the crowd ;). Obviously, one job after the other took me in the right direction in the end, and I'm glad I will (hopefully) never have to work as a lawyer.
- I studied music at a conservatory, about 8 years IIRC. Violin was my main instrument. I played in a number of orchestras and the "official" tango orchestra until I moved to Buenos Aires (see 4.). At around 15, I figured out playing tango wasn't going to get me too many chics, so I started with electric gitar, after a brief time with the drums (while still playing tango with my violin!). I happened to like metal too much, so I ended up playing in a number of metal bands, which also turned out not to get me too many chics either... I was the lead guitar, but it's been so long since then, that I can barely play a decent riff nowadays.
- Unlike many believe, I played each and every sport available in my native town: football, basketball, voleiball, baseball, swimming, tennis, paddle, etc. etc. I was never too good at any, and never got hooked to sports. I'm not a big fan of watching sports either, quite unlike most argentinean men. (Spending weekends at home watching football games seems to be the #1 complain from most women around here).
- I'm from a small town about 300 km (~186 miles) from Buenos Aires. I moved to Buenos Aires (where I currently live and where my company is based) at the age of 20, 12 years ago. It's a lovely city (now that I spent 45 days travelling Europe with my wife, 2 daughters, my mother and my mother in law, I can really appreciate it), and it changed my life forever. First, it gave me internet (wait, keep reading!), back in '97. That was unthinkable in my native town. Thanks to that and mIRC, I met my wife on a chat room where I also made some friends. It was the glory days when chatting was about making friends, going out as a group, and not about getting a chic. Although that was sometimes a nice bonus, of course ;). And I also met my partner Victor "vga" Garcia Aprea also on the internet, competing on MS newsgroups to answer as many advanced questions on ASP.NET 1.0 custom control building as we could. He won, and he earned his ASP.NET MVP award much earlier than me. I got him into writing for Wrox Press after that, and eventually we founded Clarius Consulting, which is the dream company to work on in Argentina ;). (ok, this item is a tad more than just one thing about me, hehe)
My turn to tag five guys now:
Ok, so people is surprised by the
announcement of Dell shipping Google stuff in new machines. Guess what, I got my brand new
IBM T60p dual core centrino preloaded with
Google pack!
I was trying to determine the best setup for a secondary disk to use to work with a virtual machine (VM), which is a must in order to have the development experience inside the VM be almost on a pair with developing on the host machine (without the risks of screwing your machine with betas, etc.).
I have the usual Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 (7200rpm, 60gb), pretty much the only 7200rpm option about a year ago. And lately I bought a Seagate Momentus 5400.2 (5400rpm, 120gb) with the idea that even if it’s slower, I may use it to keep backups of VMs, music, etc.
I had some doubts regarding my Thinkpad T43p UltraBay performance for the disk. At some point, I felt putting the disk in the UltraBay was slower than using it with the external USB enclosure. So I run some tests with the two disks in USB and UltraBay configuration, using the PerformanceTest 6.0 software from PassMark, which is supposedly pretty good at testing various performance indicators.
Results were surprising:
In a nutshell
- A secondary disk in the UltraBay outperforms USB2 consistently.
- Hitachi Travestar 7k60 is showing its age, and even the “slower” Seagate Momentus 5400rpm outperforms it consistently by a substantial margin.
So disks switched roles now: 5400rpm for VMs, older 7200rpm for music/backups :o)
I want DivX playback. I want a decent screen size. I want easy photo slideshows. I want a single device.
Turns out there's no easy answer for that combination. PSP entered the scene thanks to Scott, and now the choice is even harder.
On the one hand, traditonal portable DVD players, there’s the excelent Phillips PET1000, which is DivX certified and has a very cool design and “huge” 10’’ screen. It’s pretty much the only one with DivX playback. But photo slideshow requires you to burn a CD :(. No way to just take the 2GB ultra-fast CompactFlash out of my Canon Rebel and show the family.
Then comes PSP, which is also impressive, is even cooler and also has the games bonus, but it has only a 4.3’’ widescreen display. I could put movies and music in a couple 1GB memorysticks, but I have to do a conversion from my CF :(.
Finally, there’s a digital frame which is basically an LCD with a multi-format card reader that can also display video. Sounds like what I need, but its screen resolution is far from optimal and it’s only 8’’ (although bigger than the PSP for sure).
And it all started with the idea of having a big picture (i.e. the size of the really cool 24’’ wide Dell monitor) hanging on a wall on our living room, doing a slideshow of pictures coming from a CF or SD or Wi-Fi. Then, not finding a big enough “picture frame” I started dreaming of the single device.
In the end, I think I’d need to get a big LCD display, an embedded linux processor, a compact Wi-Fi chip or something like that, a multi-card reader and somehow put it all together and make it look good (or not be visible at all by hiding the duct tape behind the display ;)). I wonder how come nobody came up with such a device yet… (or I missed and I’d certainly like to know about it!!!)
It turns out that according to some algorithm that someone posted, I'm number 15 in weblogs.asp.net according to my blog's worth :o). Very cool. I will try to keep posting useful information here...
Thank you for reading me ;-)
She's already well-known for being an early adopter, but she always manages to amaze me:
If you're looking after an exciting and cutting-edge job, keep reading!
In case you didn't noticed (I realized today :o)),
the best browser ever was released as v1.0. I thought it was going to be mainly bug fixing since the last version I installed (0.9.3), until I noticed a red icon at the bottom-right of the screen while I was reading a webblog post, with the following tooltip: "Add Live Bookmark for this page's feed".
They add a bookmark that acts as a bookmark folder (with the title of the weblog by default), and update the entries in the folder directly from the RSS feed!!! Now THAT's what I call to evolve the browsers! Meantime, IE team is trying to come up with a release that tightens security... there's an abismal difference that would take much more investment from MS to catch-up again, although I doubt they want to... My guess is they'll bet everything to Avalon, and try to get rid of IE with it by offering richer user experience for sites Avalon-aware (not that I like the idea at all....)
ClariuS already has a big fan:
The conference has been great. We're approaching the end, and I have to say I'm very satisfied. Even if I was one of the speakers, preaching the benefits of
Schematron (which went pretty well I think), and therefore didn't have to pay to be here, I'd have gladly done so. The level of talks is high and you get to meet a lot of cool guys from the entire XML space (definitely not only MS guys). No marketing, no beginner's topics, just XML and fun.
If I don't have some really exciting topic to talk about next year that Chris is willing to have on the conference, I honestly expect to be able to come back as an attendant. It's really that good.
Well done Chris!
The
one bug I wished was never fixed in VPC has been fixed in SP1. And you need SP1 in order for VPC to run fast in WinXP SP2. Damn!!!!
I'll investigate working with VPC without SP1, and using the addons from Virtual Server 2005, which used to work before....
Read
this entry where Scoble uncovered the secret, and if you need to, follow
these detailed steps. BTW, once you grabbed the newer VPC additions from the Virtual Server 2005, you can just uninstall it and continue working with VPC 2004 as usual.
