Una voz de Aliento

Es posible que hatemachine tenga razón cuando dice que este blog esta condenado a ser lentamente carcomido por la desidia de su autor. Si así ha de ser, que sea.

Durante este año y en particular este mes pasado me he visto obligado a dejar mi existencia en pausa para dedicarme a una y sólo una cosa: trabajar. El mensaje en resumidas cuentas es que el asunto no paga. Es decir, la vida tiene muchos mas aspectos que el puramente laboral y no tiene sentido que uno por no dejar tirado el barco se condene de esta manera. No lo vale, no es reconocido y no es justificable.

Igual, no salí de mi semiinfinito silencio para escribir pendejadas políticamente correctas en críptico que no van a entender sino personas muy allegadas a mi, la mayoría de los cuáles ni siquiera leen esta carajada. Salí de mi silencio para darle una voz de apoyo a un amigo que esta pasando por un momento muy jarto, a decirle que no se deje reventar, que no se deje vencer, que igual seis meses no son nada, que igual la vida sigue, que el único que pierde si uno se considera fracasado es uno mismo, que uno no fracasa sino hasta que se rinde y que la guerra no se ha perdido, y si se perdiera igual se puede pelear otra.

Page 23 Sentence 5

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 23.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

"And you off buying stolen cauldrons! Didn't I tell you not to go? Didn't I??"

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. JK Rowling

Bu thanks to the new concept of "hoteling," this risk can be eliminated. Hoteling is a system by which cublicles are assigned to the employees as they show up each day.

The Dilbert Omnibus Scott Adams

Ya se como se llama

After a lot of we browsing and going through a lot of possibilities, finally, March 18, 2004, Ingenian Software ltda came into existence. Now all we have to do is keep it alive. Seen from a short term entirely practical point of view being a mercenary programmer might have more benefits(ecnomomically speaking) than legally creating an organization. As a matter of fact, right now Ingenian is just the sum of it's associates. However, it is a bet. It is a gamble on believing that, in the future, a company can be more than just the addition of its parts. Even if it implies paying taxes and involving one self into an evergrowing paper trail, I think it is worth it. Only time will tell.

Buscando el nombre perfecto

Estos han sido dís de mucho trabajo. Pero más alla de las jornadas de 14 horas diarias, el andar corriendo para todas partes y el ser capaz de cambiar de contexto en veinte segundos, para pasar de hablar de como se pensiona un individo a cuál es el modelo entidad relación correcto, a como se configura ALSA, a que hay que hacer para poner LDAP a funcionar, todo en el transcurso de ocho miserables horas, han sido dís de pensar en el nombre que la vamos a poner a la empresa.

Estábamos muy entusiasmados con usar a Dedalux, para entrar a hacerle compañía en el Hall de la Fama a Pepux Labs o a Zarpa Group. Sin embargo el Señor José Rafael Rubio Velandia se le ocutrrió registrar el 7 de mayo de 1996 a la marca Dedalus en la clase 9 del protocolo de Niza, por lo que la sociedad, o la empresa, o lo que sea, no puede llamarse así, porquée puede ser motivo para problemas legales después, o si no pregúntenle a Ola, que esta siendo demandada por Hola, y con razón

Con el nombre principal imposibilitado toco salir a la búsqueda de un nombrecito que cumpliera un par de características:

• No estar registrado ante la Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio
• No tener registrado el nombre del dominio (el .com o en su defecto el .com.co)
• Ser pronunciable no sólo en español sino también en inglés y en siberiano, mongol, mandarín sánscrito, alemán y vasco
• Debe tener una connotación positiva, es decir, no valen nombres como Belcebú, Parca, Satan o Pastrana, que tienen de por si un significado no positivo.
• Es deseable que de alguna manera el nombre se refiera a tecnología, o por lo menos permita deducir que se trata de una empresa relacionada con eso
• Sería muy bueno que tuviera algo de color local, sin perder por ello su Universalidad, sin embargo Los mejores nombres que cumplen con esa característica ya están tomados.

Todos los algoritmos de básqueda han resultado infructuosos. Por ejemplo, buscando nombres de estrellas (no de farándula, sino cuerpos celestes) se encuentra uno con estas joyas y se da cuenta que ha todo el mundo se le ha ocurrido lo mismo que a uno.

El nombre no puede ser ni muy largo ni muy corto, pero es tenaz ver que todas las palabras de menos de seis letras ya son dominios parqueados de algún proveedor de hosting. Por otro lado la combinación de palabras fáciles como tec, net, red, compu da con unos nombres que ya estan todos reservados en el famosísimo Unicharco (Unilago para los menos asiduos).
Los nombres mas serios, por su parte, esos que inbluyen palabras de firma consultora internacional como soluciones, desarrollo, asesoría y software pues resultan en unas cosas larguísimas que parecen de bufete de abogados y que no pronuncia nadie.

Esperamos que la musa nos inspire

Y entretanto....

• Qué fue de la vida de binaryx, el blog desapareció de la open list y la evil list se acabó y pues ni más?
• Maldito Turo actualice su blog
• Las fotos de Freak Halloween 2003 se van a juntar con el del 2004

As change goes by

Until about two months ago, my job was that of a programmer. That means: you have a very specific computer science like problem and you have to resolve it coding. Computer language code was, indeed, the answer to my work-related problems. From this point of view, then, the best way of increasing productivity was that of churning out code at ever growing levels of both speed and quality. It is what happens when you work at a company whose core business is to produce software.

I have been working at another company, whose core business is not software. For them software is just a mean to an end. That is, they have real life problems that might or might not be resolved by software. In this case then, the best way of being productive is to find out the exact problen and find the solution that best resolves it. Sometimes this solution is a one-man-month sized software development, another time it is a configuration twitch on the existing infrastructure, and yet another time it is a change on the way receipts or invoices are handled, a change of procedure.

This has an advantage and a disadvantage, for one, the perceived impact of solutions might be far better on the non-software business. That is, if three hours worth of coding resolve a huge problem and a month worth resolve none, then the three hours are the valuable part. I like this, it gives a lot more room for creativity and interesting implementations, and spending time where it is worth. This also means that purely IT based factors, like your Operating System, your programming language or your design patterns automatically become less important. If the thing works, then it is good. (It is of course up to the developer to build a good design, but only good enough for the tasks at hand).

So far I like this problem solving approach more than the software developing one because with the former coding is only put where is worth and a lot of other problrm solving tools can be used. It is not easy, but it sure makes things a lot more interesting

IP Incredible Paradoxes

Before beginning this rant I have to specify several things about myself:

• I am a software developer, I earn my beer money producing code for several different purposes
• I believe in Free Software but not think of myself as a zealot. I just think that FS happens to be one of the best ways to develop software, and yet another use of Newtons' famous shoulder of giants model for the generation of knowledge.
• I like Linux far more than I like Windows, but have programmed with M$ tools, and learned to program in a windows box

With that out of the way. I'll go on and describe a thing that happened to me yesteday:

I did a little work in the documentation of piece of code that was created on the request of a software development firm. This firm (let's call them Yet Another Elevated Corporation or YAEC for short) needed a software component, and needed it fast, so they hired a friend of mine (let's call him Yet Another Koder or YAC), who in turn, asked me to do a litle bit of the work.
It was an small work, not more that about 50 hours or something like that. As we do most of the times, before even trying to begin coding, YAC looked to the Internet for help. And the internet came to his aid, with shining colors. He found a component that performed a piece of the work he needed to do, in fact, he found the most complicated piece of the code already built for him. The best part was that the license for this code allowed him to use the code for any purpose, as he saw fit. So he did. This meant that the hardes part of the coding was already done. So he delivered to YAEC. The people at YAEC where happy. At no point did YAC try to hide the fact that he had used a piece of code from the net.
So far so good, the code has been delivered and the money is in the bank.
Yet a few weeks later a representative from YAEC calls, furiously saying that all of the code was on the net. YAC calmfully explained to him that his work was indeed not all development, but rather reusing and adapting. To this YAEC replies, with great anger, that YAC should have not charged, that this was unethical behaviour on YAC's part.

<opinion>

One of the few lessons I learned on software engineering is that reuse is good. It is better to use a piece of code that is already tested, provided that it is legal to do so. Now, If you have to perform a task and are given a certain amount of resources (money, time, monkeys -which by the way should not be called resources, it's denigrat
ing-) , and are smart enough to embrace and extend a piece of software that is available on the net you should do so. What you do if you have money, resources or monkeys left to spare depends of the kind of relationship that binds you with the provider of the money, resources or monkeys. If you were hired for a certain amount of money then go party, you did your job. If you are working as an employee, then you should return the resources or the monkeys and awsk for a raise, for giving such a boost to producvtivy. If you are a kind soul, you might even donate the remaining resources to whoever made life easier for you without knowing it. Or donate to charity. It depends, anyway.

</opinion>

New Toy

After a process of decision that took about a month, three visits to Unilago I am now the proud owner of a Toshiba Satellite A25-S279, fully equiped with 60GB on its hard disk, 512MB on RAM, CD RW/DVD Wi-Fi

Freedom

These las few weeks have been great. I have changed my working status, from slave-in-the-payroll to paid-by-the-hour-mercenary. With these changes come certain advantages, like not wearing a tie and being able to have a million hour lunch, along with disadvantages like staying late and working weekends. I have to say that the advantages outweigh the advantages totally. Even if there are things to do, the fact that is me, and not a prestablished timesheet that decide where I will be, fills me with joy. I know that it is not possible to be sure that one will never do something. So I'll say it like this: From now on I will do all that I can do, so that I can keep the ability to choose what I do, and the times I do it in. Yee hay!!!!

On a boat downstream

Rafting:To travel by raft
Raft: A flatbottom inflatable craft for floating or drifting on water: shooting the rapids in a rubber raft.
As one of the latest new comers to this outdoors activity I have to say this definition falls short. What we did last sunday cannot be described as just floating or drifting. It didn't even begin on water. It was a whole day plan, that began with a little horse riding, that I didn't participate in, given my lack of interest on those four legged beasts, and continued on in a two hour walk through a small stream with several ponds and slides carved by the water on stones, to finish gloriously in a trip down the Rio Negro with eight passengers, three guides, a rescue guy, two rafts and a kayak. Whatever I can write about it here doesn't even approach the real experience. The fear when I got thrown of the boat on the first rapid, not bacause of the risk of drowning, that was practically non existent, thanks 90% to the fact that I was wearing a lifesaver and 10% to the fact that I know how to swim, but because of the lack of control over my own body, that allowed the river to do whatever it wanted, without me being able to even have a saying on the matter. It was a lot of fun, a lot of exercise, and a very nice experience that I would really recommend, as long as you are willing to be physically destroyed the following day, as I am today, with a smile on my face and a scratch on my arm. [When, where, how]

Año Nuevo, vida nueva

Last saturday I went to a wedding. It had been a long time since I last attended such an event. About 15 years, to be more accurate. It is the first time I see a friend of mine as one of the main parties involved in this wedding business. It got me thinking: How does one take such an step? How do you know?

As far as steps are concerned, I have taken some myself. Starting next week I'll be working with my current employer only half time, on a per hour basis and will start working towards the construction of my own chuzo on the other half of my time. Right now I am on the optimistic phase of the endeavour; it will mean a lot of work, but right now, from where I am standing it seems like the right choice, and the right step to take, at the right time. Only time will tell.

On other news, as a part of my new agreement, from next week on I am only "A man in a suit" when need arises, instead of "on a daily basis" as it was until know. Let's hope the increased amount of red blood cells that can now flow upwards, free from the knot of the tie help the creativity, that has been rather dull lately.

ProFUCKduction Server

It all began humbly. It was just a rutinary upgrade, you call on the all-powerfull debian, do a simple apt-get update, say yes, get on with your life. Five minutes, tops. But it all went wrong.
apt-get did it's job perfectly, updated the thing and configured, but the ever present libc got updated, and that's where it all went berserk. The pop3 server decided that it would put a message through it's standar error stream telling everybody who would dare to listen, that somebody had used errno without including errno.h, thus producing a dependency. Applications that reference errno without including (usually by doing ``unsigned int errno'') now generate a runtime warning. Well, fucking kill me if I didn't check every bug present with every piece of software on the box I was runnning.
A full hour after the devilish ap-get I had to call the real experts to devise a clever hack that would cool of things and allow the president to read his e-mail via Outlook. A clever redirection of stderr into /dev/null cleared the problem and mail could de read. It just had a little issue: Whenever somebody sent an e-mail it got send, but an error message went back to the receiver telling him that the mail could not be delivered, altough it had been. This just HAD TO BE FIXED.
THen the guy who actually handles the machine came in and tried to fix the wreck, in the process he downgraded libc, thus rendering alll of the machines services unusable.
With the machine already down, the best solution was to install the whole thing into another box, and to pass about 17GB of data from one to the other. So the very small process that was meant to take 5 minutes, actually took 17 hours, and banned me from ever using a root console on a production server. One has to admire sysadmins.

You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. (Tyler Durden, who else?), and to comment on somebody
Stereotypes are lousy. You are not better because you have a degree, and you are not worse because you lack it. You are not wiser because you are older, or foolish because you are young.

FISLC and other demons

Last saturday the FISLC took place. The weather was an awfull mess and not a lot of people came. All in all, most of the time there were more people helping organize than people receiving help. It helped me realize how little I know about Linux. I liked specially the show of Pequelin, a meta distro built for kids, in Spanish.

A few weeks ago I finally came around and replaced my aging Mandrake 8.1 for a Morphix. I have to say I fell for apt-get almost instantly, it is indeed a very nice thing. I still have to restart my network by hand every time I turn the machine on, but I'll come around and fix it pretty soon. I also have to say I have become a huge fan of the mailing list archive, everything one could ever ask for has already been answered there.

Maldito Turo, actualice su blog

Futbol, futbol futbol

The last time I played soccer I was in high school. People say that playing soccer is like riding a bike; you never forget once you've learned. The problem is when, like me, you never learned the first time. I played in this forty people matches, with three simultaneous games going on on the same field, so there wasn't a lot of ball handling involved. Seven years from that, I accepted, for the first time, to go to a soccer match.
I have to say I had a great time. I played as the palomero, whose mission was to wait deep behind the opponents field, and run around the ball.
I did not think I would be this tired afterwards. 36 hours after the match finished my legs have kept their decision to give me a long dose of pain every time I move them. I did not know that playing soccer hurts your (!!) shoulders. I hope that by tomorrow I will have recovered. And will definitively play again.

A chuzo of my own?

It has always been my idea that, as a choice for a living, I would create a company of my own, a compny that build software, to be excat. Be it because of all that was said back in college or because of what I see around, this has been my idea for quite a while. I say it might be a school related illness because of Zarpa and Pepux Labs.

Upon graduation all wise old people around said: Young grasshopper: You should wait for a while, work a little, see what it's like, then you can go and start your own.

Being, as I was and still am, rather inexperienced on these matters, I followed their advice. But when is it a good time to jump ship and start? As one grows older the amount of responsabily increases. It is probably easier to jump ship now, being single and without children, than in the future, where the situation may change.

Anyways, the tought has been seriously crossing my mind lately. Perhaps I have a distorted view of what staring up is like, but as I see it, is the only way I conceive the future, at least in the long term. I don't know If I'll be able to say "yes, boss" when I'm 35, or when I'm 25 for that matter

I've lost my principles and am writing this from a Win2K box I had to install in order to get the software from the office working on my PC. I haven't even installed vi in it.
The age of the chulo

Lately I have been noting the emergence of a phase in life called "the age of the chulo". Like adolescence and old age, it seems to be a phase in life whose frontiers cannot be clearly defined, but that appears to happen in the early twenties. It is supposed to eventually fade out but there have been cases of people remaining in the chulo ages for years.

People suffering from this syndrom can experiment the following sympthoms:

• The expression "Darle a lo que sea" becoms frequent in their speeches


• Aguardiente and vallenatos are more likely to become the companions of a night out, than suicidal rock and Coca Cola


• Suddenly 4AM is not so late, and a half a bottle is not so much

This phase is also known as "Perdición"

I have not seen a Colombian World Cup match since USA94 and I have to say I haven't missed much. Are we eternally condemned to a mediocre performance? Looks like the colombian Soccer team is like a snapshot of the country: Great talent, with poor team skills and unable to cope with either failure or sucess.

23 and counting

When Alexander the Great was 18 he commanded the macedonian cavalry in the battle of Cheronea. When he was 20 he became king of Macedonia. When he turned 23 he was well inside Persia, had already won at Halicarnassus and had already solved the Gordian Knot Riddle.

By the age of 20, Charles XII, of Sweden had already defeated both Denmark and Rusia

At age 21 Mozart had already traveled all of the european courts at least twice as a gifted musician

I became 23 last sunday and the only thing I could do was throw a party. It was very nice tough. A few open-listers attended, and some of them stayed until sunrise.

It was very nice to see a lot of people I had not seen in a while. As an ode to getting old I received news that a friend of mine is getting married next july with his 4 year girlfriend. The thing is, this guy is exactly my age. We graduated from the same school in the same class, yet I don't see myself getting married in the near or far future. Not because I don't want to eventually be married, but because I don't see it as a part of my right now. Will I ever?, let's hope so

Expect pictures to be posted here soon

Run, Forrest, run

Today, after Montoya's unidisputed victory in the F1, I had a race of my own to run.
In Bogota's very own Maratón. The starting point was on Plaza de Bolívar, and the day was rather rainy, not a downpour, but a small shower, but it kept on during the whole race.

I ran the 21Km marathon which is the big one, by Bogotan standards (A marathon is 42Km long, but none are held in Colombia). It was very well organized, with poles marking every kilometer and water or gatorade every two or three kilometers.

Right at the start the race was a huge croud of people and there was no possibility of advancing at any speed that was duifferent from that of the whole group. It wasn't until Parque Nacional, a kilometer and a half ahead, that the mass of people got sparser and some breathing room was possible. I had run the same race last year, and I felt better this time. The rain was not an annoyance, but an aid for not dehydratating, except for the occasional poodle of muddy water that got splashed and went into one's own tennis shoes.

Jogging is a masochistic sport. Right in the end I only wished for the race to end, from kilometer 17 up to the end, my legs were killing me. I could breath fine and I had enough energy to go at a faster pace, but my legs were unable to keep the rythm. I finished in 1:54:07, which is not really good but it beat my previous mark of 1:59:53. Yee Hay

The best part of the whole event was to see all of the people, both participants and public. Despite the continuous rain, troughout the whole race, a lot of people was shouting and cheering, and a lot of car drivers were angry at the race, which closed the roads for them and made the wait for several hours for the whole croud to pass, and I cannot describe the feeling when a little difference of height in the terrain (such as going down 72nd avenue) permitted the view of a huge river of people as far as the eye could see on both directions. That is really overwhelming.

Sincierto

Pues me quedé con las ganas de escuchar a 4AM en vivo. Eso me pasa por llegar a las nueve y cuarto a un concierto que comienza a las ocho y treinta (y que en realidad sólo comenzó hasta como las diez y treinta). En fin, me tocará conformarme con oir las canciones bajadas por MP3. Igual, terminé metido en "La tienda del Café" en Usaquén dónde, entre otras cosas, no venden café.

Ya casi cumplo seis meses en el trabajo. Eso es muuuuuucho tiempo. Hasta ahora, haciendo un balance:

Cosas Buenas:

• He conocido una cantidad de gente, y visto una cantidad de maneras de ver el mundo


• Definitivamente hacer software si es lo mio


• He podido estar involucrado, de manera relativamente cercana en un proceso de negociación del estilo de "cuánto vale esto", "cuánto nos demoramos haciendo aquello"


• He tenido la oportunidad de jugar con gran cantidad de software y hardware(todo de La misma gente, pero que mas da

Cosas Malas:

• Corbata los lunes, martes, miércoles y jueves !!!!!!


• Tener que contarle a una maquinita que es lo que uno ha estado haciendo

Según eso las cosas buenas son "profundas" y las malas puramente operativas, por lo que el balance, teniendo todo en cuenta, es muy bueno.

El domingo es la Maratón de Bogotá. No he podido entrenar, por circunstancias diversas, pero igual la voy a correr. Espero hacer menos de dos horas en los 21km.

Raro escribir en español, mejor sigo haciéndolo en inglés

Compilation at last Several random thoughts

• I wanted to write a very long rant about what I've been doing at work, but found it is not easy to do so, without going into specifics that I'd rather not have published on the Internet, so I'll just have to say we made a bold move that forced a great change, and that now there is a great challenge ahead for me/us and that I'm very happy about it.
  I have the opportunity of playing the role of architect - implementor - maker of policy - dirty coder - etc. And it is just great.


• It look like vacation time makes bloggers very busy, and entries have been rather poor lately. However I have to comment on svigle's life threatening experience: It is weird, when I started driving I thought the worst thing that could happen to me in a car was that I crashed it and got into trouble (as in, trouble paying the reparation). It wasn't until a few years later when a friend of mine died on a car crash, thanks to large doses of alcohol on the driver of a large SUV who crashed the car he rode in, that I realized that driving, and cars can actually kill people, and can actually make one who is behing the wheel, a murderer. That is one of those things that have to happen close to you, for you to realize.


• It would look much cooler on geek meetings if one said "Debian" when answering the perennial what's your distro question. It is more hackish, to say it some way. However I like my machine to be configurable only when I want to configure it. I want for the tools I use to be configurable. I like to configure my apache, or my version of mysql server, but I do not want to configure the X server. I know I use X, but I don't care about the number of Hz the screen runs on. The nice newbie like installation interface made those choices for me, and made them right. There's nothing worst than having to spend a whole week figuring out what makes X crash, because of installing it by hand (or from a bleeding edge testing branch). For me, Mandrake has done the job perfectly, I configured my system carefully where I wanted it carefully configured, but didn't configure it where I wasn't interested. I think that's the beauty of Linux and all it's wide spectrum of choices. You can decide what you want to control and what you want to leave as is.

kNOppix

As One of the best hackers I know notes in his blog, I had the pleasure of being invited to a Geek-fest. As awful as I might look in the pictures (I tend to do that, look awful in pictures) I had a great time. I got to meet the now very famous Juan Luis, and Arhuaco, in the costeñan flesh

Aside from that I got a fresh copy of knoppix. The next day I found out I hadd 11 gigs of wasted disk lying around, so I tried to install it. However, Alejo's CD seems to have become physically damaged on it's trip from his home to mine. Still curious, I downloaded the whole thing all over again. 36 hours later I had yet another knoppix CD. I have to admire the guys, that LiveCD runs like a charm. When installing, it asks almost nothing, which is perfectly good for newbies. After the installation finished and it allegedly installed LILO I rebooted and tested. The thing was nowhere to e found among the other four options in my boot. No problem, I just redid LILO, and up I went. One reboot later I was looking at a screen that said Debian and asked for my login.

All is well, the thing loaded KDE, no problems at all, all the hardware was correctly detected. However.... when I tried to logout, the thing just died, the screen started blinking (as a message telling me no info was coming from the CPU) and it did nothing. When I rebooted I expected e2fsck to make me wait, but nothing major, However, e2fsck quit on me and told me I had to manually rerun it. I did, and after correcting some 20 mistakes in the drives I entered again. Again very nice KDE3, again, on logout, the thing died, and again it sends the hard drive to hell. Being a little faint of heart when it comes to IDE disks I decided to leave knoppix's pretty KDE interfaces to the LiveCD, and remain with my very old, very graphic, very mine, very configured Mandrake 8.1.