Alcides Fonseca

Sou cliente Vodafone desde que tenho telemóvel (9 anos, e sim, na altura era Telecel) e nunca tive qualquer tipo de problemas, e considerava-me um cliente satisfeito. Até ontem.

Desde alguns meses para cá, tenho subscrito o aditivo Internet 100 que custa 5 euros por mês, e eu estou longe de chegar ao limite.

Ora como o meu telemóvel actual é um Blackberry Curve, decidi experimentar o aditivo superior Internet 300 visto que suporta o Serviço BB.

Dia 1 de Setembro, tinha 99.X Mb em 100 por gastar e 5 euros descontados na conta, e telefono para a linha dos aditivos para fazer o upgrade. A resposta que tive foi que tinha de cancelar o aditivo actual, perdendo tudo, e voltar a subscrever o plano 300. ou seja, perdia 5 euros, 100 Mb e ainda tinha de pagar de novo 10.

Isto para mim é inadmissível. O que eu aceitaria (e esperava) era pagar 5 euros de upgrade de aditivo (a diferença) e ficaria com 299.X de tráfego para gastar.

E a resposta da senhora que me atendeu foi bastante categórica. Não era mesmo possível creditar os 5 euros. Perdi o gosto que tinha pela Vodafone e fiquei mesmo desiludido. Eu a querer dar-lhes mais 5 euros e eles querem o triplo.

Não façam backups, não.

E é bom que seja agora. Go, go, go!

How to install the R python bindings library RPy2 on Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard using Homebrew.

Install R

In order to install R in your Mac as a framework, make this change in your homebrew/Library/Formula

brew install r

Install RPy2

wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/r/rpy2/rpy2-2.1.4.tar.gz#md5=cf4e0d80ba498a6d76f107531966478d tar xfz rpy2-2.1.4.tar.gz cd rpy2-2.1.4/ sudo python setup.py build --r-home /usr/local/Cellar/r/2.11.1/R.framework/Resources/ install

Troubleshooting

If you are having a problem related to “-framework vecLib” when installing rpy2, insert a new line after #134 of setup.py with the following:

extra_link_args = extra_link_args[:-1]

Worked for me.

A simple exercise: read through the real Chevalier d’Eon wikipedia page, and try to guess if he was a man or a woman.

Now, there is an anime based on this historic character and it’s history which resolves around the King Louis XV, Le Secret du Roi and Robespierre. Although they had introduced magic into the story, the result was quite interesting and made me like very much the show, specially the thought of the duality between the solitude of kings versus how evil/machiavelli/good they are.

Of course it also features some ideas of le Révolution Francaise opposing the existing honor to the King, which lead to a lot of intrigue and betrayals.

Besides the usual reading spike, I’ve been trying to watch more anime these holidays. After Monster, which I really enjoyed, I’ve watched Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a adaptation of Dumas’ novel, but set in a distant future with spaceships and The Count being changed by a demon.

This futuristic changes were excused in my opinion (they were only there because of marketing tactics, I guess) but fitted the technique that they used to fill the clothes with static patterns (You really have to check it out!). Luckily they’ve retained the society, fashion and style of the time. There’s even a French spoken intro to every episode. Most of the times you don’t even know it’s set in the future.

Even if the plot is not surprising at all (even though I haven’t read the novel before), the anime is really well done, pursuing a more emotional and dramatic view of things, and I even trembled when one of the characters died (not going to spoil it, but you’ll know when you get there). And just like all the animes I’ve loved, this one also has a lovely soundtrack.

Been kinda busy with school projects and exams, but took the afternoon to watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. I hadn’t seen the prequel series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but I got the story without a problem and, despite being a bit too long, it was an awesome movie. The slow pace and the time it took for the initial riddle to be solved grabbed me to the screen until everything was clear and explained. (It was so good, I even bared to watch it on CAM quality, and thrust me, I have seen better cams than this one)

When I saw the opening, I recalled the song, but don’t know where from (since i haven’t seen the series). Probably some Best of Anime OSTs or something like that. Cheerful.

I don’t know if it’s for liking animes with girls with “disproportional breasts”, or just because the whole alien + time travel theme is my thing, but I’ll probably give the tv series a go during this holidays.

So good, I had to blog about it: How to Access the Internet.

If the unbelievable decisions that are being taken in courts and in businesses regarding the internet and communication continue to be the way they have been the last years, I sense this amusing article will cease to be fiction very soon.

Two lumberjacks, a younger one and an older one, raced to see who could cut down the most trees in a single day. At the end of the day the winner was obvious. The older lumberjack had won. The younger man could not believe it!

“How could you have cut down more trees than I did?” he asked. “Every hour you sat down while I kept right on cutting. I don’t understand. How could you have cut more trees while sitting so much?”

“When I sat down, I was sharpening my axe,” the older lumberjack said. “Why didn’t you stop to sharpen your axe?” “I didn’t have time,” the younger man said. “I was too busy cutting!”

Como developer que sou (ou pelo menos penso que sou), gosto de conhecer as ferramentas com que trabalho aprender mais sobre elas, e escolher as melhores para determinado fim. Seja qual for o tipo de ferramentas, e muitas delas são apenas processos.

Muitas das vezes exercito o meu lado voyeur, navegando na net à procura de Office Porn, sendo que uma paragem frequente é o The Setup, entrevistas bastantes simples a várias personalidades baseadas em 4 perguntas: Quem és? Que hardware usas? E que software? Qual é o teu Setup de Sonho?

Nas várias entrevistas é interessante não só saber o que usam, mas também o contexto, o workflow, as razões, que tornam a entrevista não só num show-off de gadgets, mas também numa partilha de processos.

Nesse espírito decidi organizar o mesmo, orientado a Portugal, onde convido pessoas que considero que fazem algo interessante a explicarem-nos como o fazem e que machados usam para o seu trabalho.

Podem encontrar as entrevistas em UsaIsto.com, seguir o RSS ou seguir no Twitter, visto que as entrevistas vão aparecendo com regularidade.

This post is about as minimal as the app:

If you are looking for a simple way of logging the time you spent doing something, João presents you: Thyme.

I’ve been only using git for little more than two years now, but having using it daily for every project (even those in subversion servers, via git-svn) I’ve learnt a few tricks and developed my own workflow.

During this semester, I have been working on a 13 people project and we are using git (and github) to manage the code. This means a large code-base with two different teams working on different parts of the software, that depend on each other. And I’m the lucky poor bastard who has to keep updated with the whole system and perform the merges of feature and bug branches.

Working on such environment makes weird stuff happen to the repository and when one gets to merge a branch, discovers everything is now broken and some stuff disappeared. Here are some things to avoid, learned from this and many other projects:

• Developer A commits some stuff. He then pushes to master.
• Developer B (almost at the same time) commits and pushes to master.
• Developer A finds out he forgot to include one file, and commit amends the file. He then pushes with -f (because an amended commit requires it) and B changes are lost for ever (not quite, but B may delete that code once pushed).

Another interesting story is about a feature X that was accepted to be merged into master, but since it was based on a really old version and a total refactor of half of the code. Smart as I were, I decided to do a rebase instead of a regular merge, to resolve merges commit by commit. Turned out I needed to undo the rebase and turn it again on a branch without my conflict solving.

As a rule of thumb, avoid at all costs to use -f, because as easy and attractive as it might seem, in the end it might corrupt your repository. Also, merges are a nice way of keeping your history clean and prevent from losing individual codes.

LaTeX is a typesetting tool, the de facto standard for scientific publications.

MacOS Setup

Everywhere on the Internet you will be recommended to install MacTeX, which includes everything you will need. Although this is an hassle free alternative, I’d rather have as little junk in my hard-drive as possible, so I suggest BasicTeX (download), a minimal latex installation with the basics you need (such as latex and pdflatex tools working).

To create and edit tex files, I rely on my jack of all trades, TextMate and make sure to compile the file, and then watch it, so it updates automagically when you save the file. The downside is that you have to focus on the Preview window (which I do by cmd+tabbing).

If you are using an old template, you will see that it fails to compile due to missing modules. That’s the downside of a minimal installation, but the solution is as easy as apt-getting: sudo tlmgr install <module_name>. And it even selects the mirror that’s closest to you.

Finally, for managing my references I am using Papers.app (although I should definitely try Mendeley since it’s free and has a web interface). I import all the papers I am interested in. When writing an article, I select the papers I will need to reference, export them as a bib file, and then when I need one, I copy their citekey. As easy as that.

It seems that Apple may face an antitrust scrutiny based on the fact that section 3.3.1 of its developer’s agreement prevents developers from using cross-platform solutions, which will lock developers to Apple’s platform, making it even more richer.

First of all, I would say that I don’t like Apple’s new policy. The choice of using middleware (even though it will have reduced compatibility and will look alien) should be given to developers, and later on, to users if they don’t feel like using/buying those apps.

However, I am against the whole antitrust issue. Apple has the right to take that decision, that will have consequences, good or bad only time will tell.

I believe this decision does not take you any freedom. If you are a developer, you are free not to accept those terms, and not to develop for iPhone. And if all developers feel the same, they will migrate to other platforms (Android, WebOS, Phone7) making them a much more attractive platform for users.

And if you are a user, you are free not to buy and use an iPhone. And if all users feel the same, developers will bet more on that platform, since it has the most potential for revenue. Well, maybe there is a social and economic factor to have in consideration.

But this is not so simple, both developers and users have to switch away from the platform, and that’s specially hard considering that:

• Smartphones are not that cheap to switch away because of policies.
• iPhone has much more apps as of today (and probably the best apps)
• iPhone also has a larger user base that attracts developers.

And to that, I only had to give credit to Apple for such a good strategic planning.

Thomas Freyman faz algumas previsões para um futuro, que me fizeram pensar um bocadinho.

Sistemas de Crise

É necessário uma mudança radical, que nos leve de sistemas nacionais a sistemas globais. Nos próximos anos haverá falhas na maioria dos sistemas, incluindo sistemas fiscais, jurídicos, segurança social, e muito mais, e à medida que vão caindo, novas oportunidades irão surgir.

Com os problemas que têm havido com a introdução da informática e internet, há leis que não fazem sentido nenhum. Até questões como o copyright e patentes são questionadas e deixam de se aplicar ao que se vive hoje em dia. E espero que haja alterações significativas na saúde e biotecnologia e na educação que nos obriguem a pensar em reformular a nossa sociedade e na forma de abordar essas áreas.

A chegada do “Império unipessoal”

Com os mercados financeiro em perigo, a forma mais popular para o empreendimento será o “Império unipessoal”, um negócio conduzido apenas por uma pessoa e com grande influência.

Podemos já ver cada trabalhador como um trabalhador individual, mas com apenas um cliente. Em alguns casos isto pode deixar de fazer sentido, mas nos outros continua a ser igual, menos a legislação e regalos e afins.

Colónias empresariais

Colónias de nanotecnologia, de videojogos e medicina, irão surgir como incubadoras de indústrias especificas e como componentes do desenvolvimento económico.

Já estamos a ter um pouco isto… Mete-se numa taça coworking, hacklabs e clusters tecnologicos e dava uma cena interessante.

Cloud Computing

Tal como a crise financeira faz parte de uns ciclos sinosoidais, o core do processamento vai variando do servidor para os terminais móveis, e acredito que volte a passar para os móveis quando os processadores ficarem pequenos e rápidos o suficiente. Por isso acredito no cloud computing a medio prazo, mas o futuro não vai ficar por aí, mas por computação distribuída e ubíqua.

Batalha nos sectores de energias alternativas

Nos próximos anos, as energias alternativas vão expandir alcançando novos terrenos de produção, transmissão e abastecimento.

Acho que ainda vai existir competição entre as diversas fontes renováveis e as mais económicas e rentáveis vão ganhar. Acho ainda que o armazenamento vai ser um factor chave nestas soluções¹. Claro que a gestão energética vai passar a ter uma componente mais doméstica, com a introdução de sistemas de gestão de energia inteligentes.

[1] Passo a publicidade à Soltotal, se andarem a procura de energia solar ou de aquecimento recorrendo a pellets.

From Dropbox’s Lessons Learned slide deck.

Note: regular posts will resume shortly.

A nice non-official redesign of Facebook. Would like to see it working on the real website.

This new version is getting really better :)

Favorite feature so far (referring to the REPL):

Tab-completion for all packages on the classpath, as well as object and instance methods and fields, including type aliases and package objects. Searchable history, integrated shell access, and a power mode which offers direct access to compiler internals.

Atheist activist, Richard Dawkins along with atheist author, Christopher Hitchens, have instructed lawyers to prepare an indictment on crimes against humanity in order to arrest Pope Benedict XVI during his state visit to Britain in September.

Read the whole news entry.

I’m not sure about the legalities around the letter (and child abuse) and all those issues around him being the pope, but if this is going to happen, I’m throwing a party that day. Not because of convicting people protecting child abuse (although it’s a good thing) but because it shows catholics that the “representative” of their God in this planet is humanly flawed and their system probably corrupt.

I just wish they kept this a secret. They are underestimating the power of Church nowadays, and they will prevent this from happening

How to install PIL (Python Image Library) in Snow Leopard with freetype2 and libjpg support.

Libjpg

brew install jpeg Or download source and compile.

Freetype2

wget http://mirrors.fe.up.pt/pub/nongnu/freetype/freetype-2.1.10.tar.gz

tar -zxvf freetype-2.1.10.tar.gz && cd freetype-2.1.10

./configure && make && sudo make install

PIL

wget http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.6.tar.gz

tar -zxvf Imaging-1.1.6.tar.gz && cd Imaging-1.1.6/

Open setup.py and change JPEG_ROOT and FREETYPE_ROOT to:

FREETYPE_ROOT = libinclude("/usr/local")

JPEG_ROOT = libinclude("/Users/alcides/Code/Support/homebrew/Cellar/jpeg/7")

Finally, sudo python setup.py install

Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he’s from the future

“Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I’m here to stop it ever happening.” — he said.

I say let’s help him save the world from the ubiquity of Kit-Kats! Or just let go on with our lives…

This week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a tribute to Akira Kurosawa, a director that influenced George Lucas and you can see it in the Star Wars original saga.

Oh, and if you find some resemblance with The Seven Samurai, it might just be coincidence ;)