(GNU) Linux distros: What’s the best?

Sneaking around some news-related websites I found an interesting link, it is: “The Readers’ Choice Awards“, an initiative from LinuxJournal to find out what are the best open source / free software projects for their readers.
Anyone can vote, and as part of the questions, one I found pretty interesting was: “What’s your primary Linux distribution of choice?“.

Every time I talk with my neighborhood’s friends, this is one of the usual questions always come up… always! And the curious thing is that every one has the perfect answer: Debian! Ubuntu! Mandriva! whatever! Do you know how many Linux distros are available around the Internet? Too many!!! (You can check a huge list at DistroWatch).

I must be honest with you; I have no favorite Linux Distro. Maybe I am a bit weird, but I love to test distros… so I haven’t just one installation at a time, but several!
Thanks to virtualization (VirtualBox in my case) and a lot of hard disk space in my box, I use to have seven Linux systems installed on my computer, but don’t get me wrong, I don’t run them all at the same time. Normally I boot two or three distros just for testing new packages as kernel updates or new versions of KDE or Gnome, and of course, new versions of the most popular Linux distros, every time there’s a release. I was born to be a tester, I guess

Ok, let’s get back to the question that inspires me to write this post: “What is the best Linux distro?”. As I already explained before, I can’t answer the question (because I love them all), even more, that question brings more questions to my head: Who can answer that question? Some veteran Linux expert? Linus Torvalds? the market?

It’s hard to know it. After all, what are the points we must consider to define something is “the best”? Let me give you an example: How do you define what’s the best car for you? What are the parameters you should care about? design, speed, comfort, fuel consumption, traction, price, you name it. Additionally, you should care about two external variables: who will be the driver? and what are the tasks you expect to make with that car? take the kids to school or run the Formula One?
The first sentence coming to my mind when I think about this example is: “it depends”. My grandmother loves a very classic Cadillac, but I love Monster trucks… so, who’s right? Is the word “best” a very relative concept? Well, facts tell me, it looks like.

Ok, now let’s get back to the Linux distros issue. Currently there are many articles around Internet ensuring “Ubuntu is the best linux distro“, It makes me happy because I like Ubuntu, but I have to say that I am not pretty sure about how fair is this affirmation.

Don’t get me wrong, Ubuntu is a very well supported distro and it has a friendly interface which makes it a very good option for desktop end-users. But, Does it make Ubuntu the best Linux distro for every one? Mandriva and Fedora are very friendly too, they could give a good fight in the desktop market. So, Who should be the winner? the project with the bigger funds? What about the community behind? Debian has a pretty huge army of developers and fans; even more, Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it has a chance to be one of the best distros too.

Now, let’s add another variable to the equation: Server or Desktop? is the same environment? Of course, not. As you already know, Suse and Redhat are distros very popular around the enterprise market (servers). Is Ubuntu server enough mature to fight against them? I don’t know.
Now the question has been splitted in two: What’s the best Desktop Linux? What’s the best Server Linux?

As far as I try to find an answer, I get more and more confused. The question is complex, no doubt about it.
Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, Debian, Slackware, OpenSuse, Gentoo… too many flavors, as in ice cream kiosk, with a clear difference: in ice cream kiosks there is no a flavor winner, the real winners are the kids, I guess. By the way, ¿Is there a “best” ice cream?
What if in the Linux world we don’t need a winner? What if the real power of Free Software is diversity and everyone makes his own choice and enjoy it? What if the real winners in the Linux battlefield are the users? Maybe “best” is a dangerous word, at least, in this context, maybe the word we must empower is “diversity”

For now, while the best Linux distro is discovered by the experts and my friends keep discussing about it, I will keep playing with the seven Linux flavors I have installed in my box!

Comments are pretty welcome. Gaming time (OpenArena session) ! see you later

Understanding the funny way the world economy works

As I mentioned in my latest post, I even don’t understand why the world economy crashed several months ago. The question was surrounding my mind for many days, so I couldn’t help to start looking for an answer.

If you know me a little, you should be aware I’m an excessively curious guy. I must be honest; this subject is really complex and broad… I had to expend hours and hours reading large boring articles, and nevertheless I just could understand too few. So, I can’t blame you if you get bored too.

So, here we go… let me show the results of my research. My starting point was some news headlines from the last months:

• http://www.globalissues.org/article/768/global-financial-crisis
• http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/08/news/international/world_crisis/index.htm
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html
• http://www.lehman.com/

I want to remark some concepts from those articles. Quoting Wikipedia as usual:

- Stock: In business and finance, a share (also referred to as equity share) of stock means a share of ownership in a corporation (company).

In my words: A little piece of a company translated into a piece of paper similar to a bill.

- Stock market: is a private or public market for the trading of company stock and derivatives of company stock at an agreed price

In my words: A place where you can buy and sell stocks

- Broker: A broker-dealer is a company or other organization that trades securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers.

In my words: Someone authorized to buy and sell stocks

- Investment banking: Investment banks profit from companies and governments by raising money through issuing and selling securities in the capital markets (both equity and bond), as well as providing advice on transactions such as mergers and acquisitions.

In my words: The art of making money buying stocks and re-selling them adding some bucks to the initial cost. This transactions can include to buy and sell whole companies.

Of course, I could put a pretty endless list of terms above about financial stuff, but I want to keep things simple so far as I can. Believe me, this issue is really messy.

Ok, now that we got the basics, next question: How is defined the price of any stock? Well, here is where fun starts. The price is not constant at all because it depends on many factors:

• Stability of the stock market
• Current financial states of the company
• Sales Projections
• Others variables

Now, imagine you are a broker with a handful of stocks of the Company X. If the business goes bad, maybe you should sale your stocks, because your current price is falling and you don’t wanna lose money. But, if business goes well, maybe you should wait a while, then your initial price start to get up which means profits for you! When to sell? when to buy? that’s the key of everything.

As result of this model, the value of companies stocks change every moment. Brokers buy and sale stocks all the time while the market is open. Some people get rich and some other get poor. That’s the game… like in a roller coaster, you can get up or down in any moment.
Have you ever watched the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on TV? All those guys with elegant ties screaming together and pointing with his hands to another guys? Well, they are playing the game.

So, let’s try to understand what happens when economy crashes:

As far as I understand, around the world every some years occurs a phenomenon called “Economic Bubbles“. Let’s quote Wikipedia again: “trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values”
So clear! Isn’t it? Ok, in my words: A bubble occurs when for some reason that I don’t get yet, brokers start to sale and buy stocks using very high prices, assuming that companies they represent, are going to have a great year.
It looks like everybody get excited and start to buy stocks and more stocks, even asking for loans to pay them.

People bet their money expecting to get rich but then, companies production/sales are not so good, so stocks prices fall quickly and everyone starts to lose his investments. If you paid eight bucks for a stock, then now it’s worth five, so you lost three bucks. In a bad week, your stock could be worth cents at Friday!
Now, imagine that a lot of companies are having the same problem… how many money can disappear in one day? millions and millions of dollars! It’s like a domino effect.

The Dot-com bubble is one of the clearest examples of this situation. I could keep writing about this for the eternity, but I don’t want to bore you with this.

The truth is I even don’t understand why the world works in this “funny” way, the stock exchange model and all that weird way of playing with fortunes. I mean, where does all the money go when a bubble explodes?

For me, it looks like the Monopoly board game mixed with a lottery but using real money. Absolutely senseless! But, please, don’t blame me, I’m just 18. Now I see why I picked up Computer Science and not Economics :S Oh! yes, Computers and the Internet are my territory! my place!

Now I got a better idea about the world crisis. What I don’t know is: either should I feel better for that or scared? Is the world a “big casino” where few players bet the global fate? You tell me…

Have a nice day friends and watch your money! Chores time…

The return of the GeeK

Yes, I know… I have been a long time away from blogging and that attitude has no pardon for a 100% techno-cyber-virtual kid like  me. A real geek has no chance to do that. My apologies!

December was a pretty busy month for me. Not only because Christmas family activities (Mom never lets me scape from that),
but because I started to learn C++ and the Qt toolkit, and I must admit it, I was trapped by code and the compiler issues for days and nights (I even had to leave my skating routine, aaargggh!!!).

I already know some script languages (as Perl and Python), but I wanted to deepen my knowledge in some traditional languages as C, C++ and even Assembler just to feed my curiosity as computer science student. But after almost two months I realized one important thing: I can’t abandon the rest of my shores any time I get obsessed for some new project or idea I find around the Internet from time to time.

My life is changing… I guess, and I was thinking a lot about it. Let me quote some lines from a very old movie I like pretty much:

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. What? It’s Corinthians one, chapter thirteen verse eleven.“

Cereal Killer, from Hackers movie

Sometimes I’m too compulsive, I know, but which teenager isn’t? I assume I must control the force within me… Am I getting older? Is this part of growing up? Maybe.

However, now that I am doing my second semester at college, I must be more responsible and use my time better. Every week I get more tasks to do, so if I don’t organize and respect my schedule my life will be a real horrible mess.

So, let’s put things in the right order!

Too many events have happened from my last post, so I just want to name them quickly to update my blog in an easy way:

- The Mono project’s rol at the Obama’s Possession. I still wonder about the great job of the Mono developers team a couple of days before the United States president’s possession to allow Linux users to watch the presidential oath using Moonlight. In my opinion, this was a clear demonstration about what a handful of determined geeks can do. Moonlight rules! Free Software rules!

- Windows 7 or the Microsoft’s chance to fix the catastrophe called Vista. If I’m right, this is the first time that Microsoft is releasing a complete  operating system before the official product releasement. Did they do it with Vista too? I don’t remember… but what is important about this is that Microsoft has started to follow the development practices described in the book “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” (written by Eric Raymond). Now world users will have a direct rol in the development of a Microsoft product (Windows 7) before it becomes commercial. This is the Open Source way!

- Massive wave of job cuts in the IT companies around the world. When I decided to study computer science, I always thought that it would be very easy for me to get a job, in any country, at any season. Well, now I have to change my mind about it. I wonder about the numbers, just in USA probably 1.000.000 jobs would be cutted along this year. It worries me, not only for my future, but the future of many people. I hope world economy comes up soon. I would like to understand what’s going on… but it looks too complex for me yet

Ok. That’s it for now… time to keep studying and to skate for a while. I’ll be back soon… I promiss!!!

Spam, the eternal enemy… eternal??? (ouch!)

As every new day, in the morning, I checked my mail as usual… and like every morning, my inbox was full of a lot of unwanted messages, yes, I’m talking about Spam.
In the last week, I have received hundreds of messages trying to sell me viagra, vacations, cell phones, online universities, condoms, sports equipment, lipsticks, porn movies, you name it. The list of products is endless, but the worse thing is that I’m NOT interested in anyone.

¿Is Spam a problem? ¿What do you think? To me, yes, it is… I mean, I don’t want to receive more messages trying to make me buy something I don’t need. ¿Have you seen those TV sales channels? 24 hours of ads… 24! Well, now imagine your TV chasing you the whole day with one of those channels. For me, Spam is the same thing: I don’t want it but some people or companies around the world are forcing me to receive this digital garbage on my inbox.

I hate to waste my time deleting every piece of garbage sent by someone that I won’t ever know. So, here we go again, looking for answers… after 2 hours, browsing around Internet, this is what I found:

The curious thing is that Spam causes millions of dollars in lost productivity to business around the world every year. So, finally I found out Spam is not just a problem to me, but to the world.
Looking for protection, I was testing many software solutions pretending to be the “answer” to this problem, but the truth is no one seems to be a permanent solution. Taking a look at the resources I found filters for mail clients, filters for mail servers (as SpamAssassin), even filters in free mail services as Gmail and Hotmail. But, it doesn’t matter if I use all these options, at the end of the day, some unwanted mails will be waiting for me in the inbox
My teacher told me about PGP, so I tried it, but in my opinion, I must say it isn’t a practical solution for end users, not only for the private/public keys management issue (If it was a little messy to me, I don’t want to think about my aunt Lily dealing with this), but for the way people must create their own trust ring. Well, it’s just my point of view, but I insist, PGP seems to be a pretty secure tool but it isn’t an usable solution for the Spam problem.
Reading a little more about this project, I found that the first version of PGP was created in 1991, but currently, too few of my friends or people I know are taking advantage of this utility.

The curious thing is Spam is NOT a new problem indeed. Looking around the Internet I found this interesting quote of Bill Gates: “Two years from now, Spam will be solved“. It was in 2004, and as far as I could read, it was the same year when Microsoft started to develop something called “Caller ID for E-mail“, a new proposal on that moment to destroy Spam (or at least, that’s what I understood). But, as in other times before, Bill was wrong on this too. It’s 2008 and we keep fighting against the same problem.

So, ¿What is the point that makes Spam an unsolvable problem? I have made some research about it and it seems the root of the problem comes from the e-mail service design.
Quoting from Wikipedia: “the format described by RFC 822 was the de facto standard for Internet e-mail for nearly two decades; it is still the official IETF standard“. If you check the header of that RFC you will note it was published at August 13, 1982. Yes, 1982! The base of one of the most important communication media was designed 26 years ago. I wonder if the engineers behind this specifications could imagine something like the Spam threat on those days, I bet they didn’t but it’s ok, I mean, it’s not so easy to guess today what could be a problem for a software/network design 20 years later from now… or is it? :S

As far as I understand, the mail protocol doesn’t provide an strict method to certify the origin of a message. If the current method is weak, that explains why is so easy to create a Spambot and then start attacking mail servers. Ironically, and quoting again from Wikipedia: “About 80% of all spam is sent by fewer than 200 spammers“, yes, in the Internet land, too few people can make a world mess.
But, ¿Why they do it? Looking for answers, I found this pretty clear article called: “The Economics of Spam: the Spam Business Isn’t Always What You’d Think“, if you read it, you’ll figure out about all the crimes hidden behind this dirty practice.

Just one thing makes me feel better about this topic: in some countries, Spam is a crime and some people currently are in jail for this, so I guess in some way, some bad guys didn’t win the game; which is ok to me, I mean, I want to believe in justice and definitely, Spam is something invasive, something bad, and the worst part is that it’s spreading in many other media, not only e-mails. I read about wiki/forums/blogs spammers, SMS/cell phone spammers, IM spammers, etc, etc, etc.

Some times I wonder about the way consumerism culture (Mom uses this expression all the time) is devastating all our real and virtual spaces: advertising is everywhere (even in Second Life), buy! buy! buy!, it doesn’t matter whether you need it or not, buy it! Finally, maybe the Spam is just a symptom of a bigger social problem. Maybe if we try to care of life more than Mom’s credit card, things could be different and problems like Spam wouldn’t exist. Can we change the way the world works? Who knows? I hope so.

Skating time… see you later pals!

E-waste: Where techno trash is going?

This week my Ipod crashed down; completely. It doesn’t work anymore, it’s trash. I took the pieces and put them into the garbage receptacle as any other waste. Mom was watching what I did, so she took out the pieces from the garbage and then put them inside another bag. Finally she said: “It’s e-waste, son. It’s special trash. You can’t mix it with food“.

¿E-waste? I didn’t know that word. For a minute, I got freeze… I mean, Mom doesn’t know nothing about technology, but she loves ecology and all about recycling habits, so she knows exactly how to classify  any kind of garbage; including technological garbage. This is the first time Mom knows more than me about my own gadgets. Awesome!

Immediately I ran to my room, to start my research of everything about techno trash: What is it? Why we shouldn’t mix it with the “normal” trash? How it must be processed? So, let me tell you what I found out:

1. Quoting from Wikipedia: “Electronic waste, “e-waste” or “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” (“WEEE“) is a type of waste consisting of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic device”. The list of examples is very long: TVs, DVDs, Cell phones, Computers (laptops and desktops), Ipods, Video Game Consoles, you name it… yes, I know, all the devices we use every day :O

2. The issue that makes e-waste a special kind of trash is the set of materials it’s made of: I’m talking about minerals; NOT biodegradable components. Here is the list of some of them: Lead, tin, copper, silicon, beryllium, carbon, iron, aluminum, americium, antimony, arsenic, barium, bismuth, boron, cobalt, europium, gallium, germanium, gold, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, selenium, silver, tantalum, terbium, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and yttrium. Well, this is not the complete list, but I guess you already get a good idea of what I’m talking about.

As you must know, organic material doesn’t represent a danger for natural resources, relatively (of course), I mean, with time they get dissolved or decomposed in their basic elements but minerals can be very destructive for animal life and rivers, for example: just one cell phone can contain so many toxics as thirty five cars… thirty five! can you believe this? well, it’s true.
Now, think for a moment about cities garbage deposits. If e-waste goes there, soon or later, it’s going to find some water resource: either a river or an underground water deposit. In any case, this water will find the sea or even worse: the city aqueduct closer to you.
So, finally, e-waste isn’t just a problem for wild life (a big problem by itself), but a direct deadly risk for humans.

I guess you had heard to someone say: “Don’t throw your cell phone battery to the garbage!“. Well, it’s about the same problem, e-waste contains very, very toxic materials. So, next time you take out your trash, please, check what’s in the bag before

3. E-waste requires a special treatment based on recycling processes of its basic components (all the elements I listed above). Curiously, at least for me, all the material collected from this techno trash, returns to factories as commodity to make new electronic devices. In other words, e-waste isn’t garbage at all, is a useful resource for industries and finally: a business. Yes, there are many companies dedicated to process e-waste, companies interested in collecting all your damaged devices, all those that surely seem like trash for you. So, if you have unwanted electronic devices in your house, and wanna throw them away, please, look for some recycling company in your city and contact them, they can help you to get rid all the e-waste in a pretty clean way.

Well, today I learned a lot of new things… I love days like this. I thought I knew all the basics about computers and gadgets, but now I realize that’s impossible, always there’s a new thing to learn, to discover and sometimes, the new lesson can be so simple that you feel you know nothing. Thanks Mom for this pretty valuable lesson.

“All I know is that I know nothing“. Socrates

“Too many questions, kid” (???)

That’s it. I’m sad. I’m mad. You wanna know why? Ok, I’ll tell you. In my last Algorithms class, my teacher was talking about the basics about language semantics and syntax. Then he said: “And all this is the compiler’s job“, so I asked: “But how?”, he answered: “It just does it“, so I asked again: “Yes, but how?“, then he told me: “Don’t worry kid. Compilers do their job very well and for now, that’s everything you should care about“. So, I said: “But I wanna know how it works” and then he said it: “You do too many questions, kid“.

I got so mad that I left the classroom. Can you believe it? I mean, What’s the reason of going to class if you can’t make questions? What’s the role of teachers but explain what students can’t understand?
I must admit I’m so confused. Maybe college is not my place, maybe I should study on my own, like my little friend Mathew does. Yes, I know… Mom would kill me.

As usually when I get depressed, I started to browse around the Internet and then, I found something very interesting: “The Hacker Manifesto“. I guess you already know it, but honestly, I didn’t (until today). It was written after the author’s arrest in 1986 (I didn’t born yet but the text is awesome!) and I found it very interesting, but don’t get me wrong; I know the difference between a Hacker and a Cracker (although mainstream media never does it). What I found pretty cool about the Manifesto, was the honest sense of pride for the pursuit of knowledge. The pure need of teenagers (MY need!). I must say this was so beautiful for me.

Just right now, I wonder about the educational systems around the world. What’s the right way to teach? What’s the right way to learn? What’s the role for us, the new generations? I just want to understand the world, I just want to make it a better place… I love to learn but the only thing I got from college is a huge wall with a big message: “You do too many questions, kid“. Fortunately, I got Internet, I got search engines, I got Wikipedia, I got myself. Learning isn’t a matter of my teachers, now, learning is a matter of myself… now, _I_ define the questions and _I_ find the answers. Quite simple.

Today, in my class, I forgot that I can figure out “how a compiler works” by myself, I forgot that everything depends on me. Maybe that’s the new educational system (What do you think?), maybe teachers aren’t teachers anymore, maybe everyone’s a teacher. What if the knowledge building is a collective process without leaders, without red lights? What if this is a new age for education? I’d like to know what other young people think about it. I’ll appreciate your comments, because I’m still sad.

I feel guilty and I don’t understand why. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity… and I’m not going to stop.

Bed time. See you.

Second Life: Exploring virtual worlds

Ok, let’s keep blogging. I love to do this! Mom says this is my only way to have “social life” and I think she’s right. Some days ago I was playing around in the Second Life world; a pretty fun experience full of surprises, I must say.

So, let’s start from the beginning: ¿What’s Second Life? well, it’s a virtual world created by the company Linden Lab. and launched at 2003. But, ¿What’s a virtual world? It’s simple, just imagine any kind of FPS video game like Metal Gear or Unreal Tournament, but without rules and of course, without all those guns and monsters surrounding, just a 3D world where you can walk and go wherever you want interacting with other users (55,403 online, as of this writing).

¿What’s the interesting thing about it? well, there aren’t limits or boundaries and it’s a complete world to explore, with a lot of real world places and others just imaginary. ¿Have you tried Google Earth? I would say Second Life brings you that special sensation you can go any place of the world in just seconds; but don’t lose my point, I mean, Google Earth is about real pictures and Second Life is about 3D virtual worlds.

Anyway, the interactivity offered by 3D virtual worlds is something incredible, after a while, you start to feel you are actually inside, even when the graphics aren’t so realistic. I don’t know how to explain it, but it happens. Mind starts believing things, for example, like you’re going to get hurt if you fall from a building. I’m not saying you’re going to feel everything as REAL, but, in a very small way, you will. ¿Have you ever dreamed that you are falling and then you wake up a little surprised? It’s something like that, but in a smaller scale.

I wonder about the Second Life user experience in the future, when graphics quality and Internet bandwidth increases and the client program support new interfaces like glasses or helmets? What if Second Life is the first, quite primitive version of the real Matrix? ¿What do you think? Time will show us (I guess). I only hope to not have to face control units like Agent Smith telling me: “Mr Sweetwater, we missss you!” (just kidding).

Ok, now let’s talk about the “procedure”: ¿What should you do to join Second Life? It’s simple, just follow these steps:

• Go to http://secondlife.com and sign up (free of charge)
• Pick a complete name (first and last) and choose your avatar (the pretty character representing you) and of course, your password
• Download the client’s binary. They support all the platforms, Linux included!
  Note: Don’t forget to check the System Requirements, you need a good 3D video card.

• Launch the program, log in, and bingo! You are in Second Life!

Before keeping on talking about the user experience, I want to talk about a very special note that I found browsing the Second Life’s Blog; it’s a post (2007) called “Embracing the Inevitable”, a cool letter announcing “the availability of the Second Life client source code for you to download, inspect, compile, modify, and use within the guidelines of the GNU GPL version 2“. ¿Can you believe it? Definitely, a pretty good referent about how Open Source is changing the way to make business. isn’t it?

Second Life isn’t a small project and big companies like Microsoft, IBM and Intel (among many others) already have “properties” and “islands” inside this virtual world. Although you don’t have to pay to get a basic account, there are a lot of business transactions running around your avatar all the time: premium accounts, land isn’t free, and you can buy any kind of accessories for your character: clothes, shoes, food, objects, whatever and even more, you can pay to change parts of your avatar (something like virtual plastic surgery) or you can do it yourself if you want it, the business models are infinite and everything is virtual, except the money.

But in Second Life you don’t pay with real money directly, it works in the same way casinos work; you must acquire Second Life “coins” to buy things from the virtual world. The official money is called “Linden Dollars” and you can get them from money exchange related websites and from some ATM machines in some countries. Definitely, this seems to be a very profitable business.

I wonder about the way virtual worlds are getting connected to the real world, I mean, every day is harder to recognize what’s real and what’s not. Virtual worlds, virtual people… Gosh! tomorrow you could be reading the blog of someone who doesn’t exist, ¿Who knows? Is The Matrix coming true? Maybe. For now, you can start reading about virtual issues from the real world.

Ok, let’s get back to the virtual fun. About the Second Life client I must say that the interface is pretty clean and easy to use (I hope someone from Facebook read this! what a terrible interface! :S).
Once you have logged in, then your avatar is before you, ready to start walking. You can use the arrow keys from your keyboard or you can try it with your mouse, using the navigation buttons from the interface. If you want to talk to another avatar, you must get close to the target and then type into the chat field as you use in any IM client (e.g. Messenger). Yes, 3D virtual social life

But the amazing feature to me, honestly, was the “Fly” option. Your avatar starts to float and fly like Neo does it in The Matrix. I know the graphics quality is low, but the experience is pretty cool.
In the beginning, I crashed into many trees, but finally I learned to fly like a superhero! Just one advice: If you are flying and want to get down and walk, first check what’s below of you. Once, I stopped flying over a lake; bad idea (splassssh!).

Another interesting client interface feature, is the “Search” option. It’s like Google, but just for Second Life, so you can find cities, communities or people inside. Thanks to this engine, you can be teleported to any place you want, of course, virtually .
Once you understand the basic rules, you can spend hours inside this virtual world. In my case, I was walking and flying around for three hours. I visited Microsoft, IBM, the Free Software Foundation, Paris, Rome, Hollywood and other many places, included the White Shark territory (Oh! my God! ).

Ok, I could write a book about this adventure but I’m going to stop right here. To finish, I must say Second Life was a pretty cool experience and I think you should try it too. Virtual worlds are here; no doubt about it. So, if someday you are walking through the Second Life streets and find someone called “Tito Sweetwater“, please, say “Hi!”

Skating time! See you later!

Mono: My first technical post

Hi everybody (if there’s somebody around), it’s me again. This time I want to write my first technical post, why? well, I wish to become a great IT consultant someday when I finish my college and if I want to develop technical skills, I guess I need to start from some point, and it is researching about software projects around Internet.

I picked up the Mono Project, the open implementation of .NET (yes, the Microsoft development platform). Thanks to this project you can port and run C# source code wrote from Windows in Unix environments (awesome! isn’t it?). I must say that Mono is not just a “free clone” of .NET, I mean, the guys behind this project are working in other features not included in the Microsoft product; for example, support for free programming languages like python and ruby among others (the list of supported languages is so long). In other words, Mono is .NET and much more!

I chosen Mono to start, because I found it very ambitious as a free software project (covered under the terms of a set of licenses: GPL, LGPL and MIT. All open source! ) and I say that because this guys are competing with the Microsoft development team. Not easy challenge at all, if you consider Microsoft is one of the most powerful software companies around the world. If Microsoft releases a new API for .NET, then the kids behind Mono start to develop a free proposal about it. Maybe it doesn’t happen with all the components, but at least in many cases. I don’t know any exception case, but if you are aware about any; please, let me know.

Looking for a hint, I was browsing some IRC channels around Internet and then, awesome!, I found Miguel de Icaza online. I couldn’t believe it, I mean, this guy is the leader of the Mono project and of course, the head behind the GNOME development at its beginning. Yes, he is a legendary GeeK and to be honest, someday I hope to be as famous as him. The great thing about Internet is that you can get closer to people that maybe you never gonna meet in the real world. For a moment, I thought I couldn’t talk to him, but he answered me and he was so tender that I am pretty motivated to write this post

I asked him for some nice topics to talk about Mono and he suggested me Moonlight and PLINQ. So, one week ago I started my research about those libraries, and here we go:

About Moonlight: This is a free proposal of the Silverlight Microsoft project. But, ¿What is it? well, in my own words: it’s the Microsoft’s answer to Flash, the Adobe’s multimedia development platform. In the words of Microsoft: “The next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web”.

But, ¿What’s going on here? Two big companies fighting for a pretty lucrative market, but most important, two interesting development platforms with real open resources for developers. ¿From both sides? Yes! thanks to Mono we can have access to Moonlight and by the way to the Silverlight technology. In the other hand and thanks to Adobe, now we can play with the SWF specifications and be part of the Open Screen Project to develop any kind of players and applications with no legal barriers (the always licenses/patents messy stuff, you know). Exciting times on this specific tecno-battlefield, isn’t it? Anyway, I think the Free Software community is reaping a generous harvest here. No doubt about it.

Ok, let’s talk a little more about Moonlight: thinking about its potential in rich media Internet applications, I must say it’s incredible. You should take a look into the Screenshots section to see a pretty variety of applications using this technology, and everything running from Firefox which should mean it works with standards and not like another “Internet Explorer dependent” proposals. The truth is I never imagined legal and free APIs parsing XAML files from Linux and I must say I wonder about how the market can change the business strategies of companies like Microsoft. It’s the open source movement playing a role in all this? I couldn’t say it (and you?).

To finish this point, I want to quote the goals of Moonlight’s project:

• To run Silverlight applications on Linux.
• To provide a Linux SDK to build Silverlight applications.
• To reuse the Silverlight engine we have built for desktop applications.

As you can read it, this guys want to do the _whole_ work. They are experienced programmers and they have Novell funds behind them, so I guess they’ll succeed; it’s just a matter of time. I was playing around with Mono some weeks ago, but I need more time to understand and play with Moonlight (I will, I promise!).

About PLINQ: When I started to read about it, I wondered about the basic concept: take advantage of the multi-core processors using a library. The main idea consists in accessing many data structures from many sources (databases, xml files, whatever ) . Just one condition is required: everything must be an object, or at least, data must be encapsulated into objects to play this game. The most interesting point I found about this API was LINQ (Language Integrated Query), the set of instructions defined to access data; it’s something like SQL (by the way, I’m learning about it in my databases class) but a little more generic. I wondered because I never imagined to use a concept like a “query” as a direct part of the syntax of a programming language. To me, it looks a little strange but interesting. Look what I mean:

var q = from x in data where (x.f-- > 0) select x;

I once heard my teacher say: “Programming languages evolve” and I feel that’s what’s happening here. I mean: embedding SQL-like sentences as part of the language instructions? I never saw something like this before. If you know about another cases, please, let me know.

The theory is pretty, but my only doubt is about the performance. PLINQ looks powerful in terms of access, and it’s supposed to optimize the processor cores usage, but I haven’t done a formal test yet. The question is: ¿How fast can it be? I was looking for preview experiences but I just found a post in a forum (no luck this time). If you can tell me about it, I’ll appreciate it. Anyway, I found PLINQ a very interesting proposal as a new concept, well, at least new to me, I mean, it seems to be a technology that focuses on the hardware of the future and I guess it’ll keep evolving, so results in some time from now should be awesome.

Ok, that’s it for now… too short, isn’t it? I guess I must try to be more technical next time, but it’s not so easy for me. Some people say that teenagers lose focus easily and I think, there is a reason for it. We are just discovering the adults world, so it’s very easy to get amazed with every new detail: business, companies, Internet, software development, you name it. The picture looks too bright for me and I’m happy because that just means one thing: I have too much to learn.

By the way, today was released Mono 2.0. My post matched a Mono release! Cool!

Chores time (again :S) See you later pals!

Google G1: Too many questions on my mind

Hello again. I’m back. This time I was thinking on writing a little regarding my first experience around Facebook, but I guess that post can wait for a while (anyway, right now I just have three friends there).

¿Why? ¿How could I ignore the Google G1 announcement? It’s amazing, there are thousands of articles and blogs talking about it. I wonder about how Google can influence the world every time they decide to release something (whatever it is).
Some days ago I posted about Google, and truth be told, the Google G1 brings to me more questions when I have enough with the unanswered questions in my mind about the company behind the new phone.

Many things to say: Now Google is getting into the phone market, a new place for them, and of course, a new way to get bigger. So bigger that Microsoft is planning to sue it soon, or at least, it’s the whisper surrounding the Internet. This seems very ironic to me. I mean, the big company which was accused for “illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly“, now is feeling threatened by Google. I ask: ¿Did somebody accuse Microsoft when that company started selling Windows Mobile?
The war between technology-related big companies looks very funny to me. I mean, all of them want to have the market monopoly and they try a lot of tricks to make that wish come true. But if someone else can win the battle, then that’s absolutely unfair; a crime! They are like a handful of “Cain” trying to look like “Abel“. ¿Don’t be evil? Come on!

This situation reminds me of a nice quote from a great movie:

“I’ve lived long enough to see the future become history, Professor. Empires crumble. There are no exceptions“
               Dorian Gray, from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

¿Is this the beginning of the long end for Microsoft? Maybe. But I don’t wanna lose my focus; the very possible new big brother: Google.

With the G1, Google is opening a new door widen its domain over user’s data and user’s behavior in another pretty big dimension. With GPS and people using Internet services like Gmail or just browsing, now it would be possible to know everything about users, even where they stand while they are buying something from eBay (for example). In some way, it’s like having a global RFID system (Think about all the possibilities and of course, the legal issues). ¿Too paranoid again? Maybe, but ¿Who could say what is the future of the phone market now that Google is in? or even more, the Google’s future? ¿What will be the frameworks and languages programmers will embrace to develop phone apps for the next years? ¿How big will be the piece of cake for Google in the phone market? Many questions, like children often do (I’m still one, I guess).

The only thing I must admit I admire about the way that company is expanding its power, is that they are using and creating a lot of Open Source Software to reach its goals. For example, Python is highly used for all the Google web applications, Linux is supporting all its data center infrastructure, Squid is used for cache functions inside the search engine, Firefox and Webkit (based on KHTML) source code was used to create Chrome, and surely there are many other free software tools supporting the giant’s operation. IMHO, Google showed to the world what some other companies were trying to in the last years: Open Source can take over the Software Industry.

A good evidence about it is Android, the operating system of the Google G1: the kernel is Linux 2.6 (by the way, I would like to see a mobile phone running the Windows Vista kernel), the applications framework is based on Java, Opencore is behind the multimedia features… ¿Do you see my point? The new phone the whole world is talking about is supported by 100% open source. Correct me if I am wrong, but I couldn’t find evidence to the contrary. I wonder why too few reporters are talking or writing about it. I repeat: a 100% open source  based phone is the new product of Google! and it isn’t a humble project, a lot of people started to compare it with the Iphone from the G1 launch day. That means a lot to me. I guess, this is a pretty good time for Free Software

Well, I could make this post endless, but I need to stop here. Just before, I want to share with you an interesting quote I found by accident:

“And the farmers will go home at night and work on the source code“

                                       Bill Gates at 2002 (Taken from The Register)

As far as I know, Larry Page and Sergey Brin aren’t farmers… maybe they were, or they will be?

Skating time! See you later

Video Games: The Interfaces evolution

A couple of days ago, I was playing with my cousin’s Wii console like I use to every week. For a moment, I couldn’t avoid thinking about the way the video games have evolved through time.
My uncle Bob talked to me about the games he played when he was a young guy. He talked to me about Atari 2600 consoles and its pretty simple interface. Inmediately, I started to search for videos, resources and pictures, including a documentary (History of Video Games) and I found it amazing. I mean, when I compare the current designs of interfaces with the first ones, I wonder about how far technology evolves (by the way, I found this interesting video about this specific topic. I guess this is NOT for young people, but for SMART young people).

When I think about past, I can’t imagine myself dealing with wired joysticks for example, or loading those big cassettes into the consoles. I must admit I am very happy because I was born a lot of years later, I guess the future is always prettier. Isn’t it?
But I must be fair too, I mean, part of the process of evolving is start from some point. All advanced designs start with a primitive idea. In the case of games, I must say the Atari joystick was a revolutionary proposal at its time.

I could focus just on the hardware interfaces and joysticks, but games have evolved in many aspects. When I was watching a video of Space Invader, I couldn’t believe it. That was the way kids got fun at 80’s??? (pour kids! including my uncle). I’m trying to be honest, I mean, it’s so boring. But of course, I can’t avoid to compare it with Counter Strike or Unreal Tournament. Yes, evolution… some things happened between the first one and the last one (Just right now I remembered Mario Bros.). Too many years, too many new ideas, thousands of programmers, innovation and of course, a *lot* of money.

I think video games aren’t just video games anymore. I mean, it’s a whole market of many products; when you think about a game, you should think in more than a DVD: shirts, soundtracks, movies and even new hardware, like the Nvidia PhysX. ¿Who knows how it will become in the next five years?

It would be unfair to talk about video games and don’t say “Hello!” to my friend Ernesto Galvez, he is the CEO of a video games company called Immersion Games. He’s a great friend of mine and sometimes he let me slip into his office to play Cell Factor for hours (I love that game!). He is an adult now, but is a really cool guy.

My problem with video games is that I can’t stop talking about them. I think is time to go back to the real world and do my chores.

See you soon!