Alcides Fonseca

For those of you without an iPad, a recent iPhone and without iCloud, here are the useful new features of Mountain Lion:

• Being able to use two (or more) harddrives as Time Machine.

Yep, that’s the only new interesting thing.

I am making myself available to fill in the shoes of RIM CEO’s for one day. Here’s what I would do:

I would drop the development of the QNX OS and all related systems. The following would be bad for me as a customer, but it makes all sense for RIM. Just fork the Android source tree into a new distribution (but keep updating with upstream) and focus on what RIM is known for:

• Security.
  • Make storage and communication encrypted.
  • Replace google’s services (Gmail, Google Calendar, …) with RIM’s services, and allow for companies to host them.
  • Make Storage automatically backed up on the RIM/Hosted cloud. Even better: make shared folders like dropbox. Everything encrypted again.
• Administrative tasks
  • Give admins great tools to manage hundreds of blackberrydroids easily.
  • Create a BBAppStore in which apps must be signed by RIM and must follow some standards like encryption, no external communication, etc… (Apps would not be bought individually for $0.99, but rather in bulk for several android terminals at once)
• Communication
  • Make the phones a really damn good email machine. Add a physical keyboard, improve the UI, but make email really easy on the phone. Just like IM.
  • Integrate VOIP really well as if there was no difference between the GSM and VOIP/Skype whatever. This would be a major selling point for companies.
• Office Integration
  • Develop great office suite apps (Word, Excel, Calendar, Mail)
  • Make a great printer (or adapter) that makes printing Documents really easy.
  • Same for scanning. Maybe using the camera and OCR.
  • Integrate well with a projector. People should be able to present with a tablet/phone and no cables.

Today Google discontinued their Social Graph API. For those who didn’t know it, you gave it an url that represented someone (my website, my twitter or facebook account) and it returned all your other URLs (my blog, last.fm, openid, youtube, among many other services) and also URLs for all my friends from all those social networks.

Social Graph API was a way of getting all your presences in the internet and also your friends. This was important for instance, when you signed up for a new account on a yet-another-social-network, it could import all your friends without asking for any permission. Games could suggest your friends as opponents. And services could get updates from all your accounts.

Technically, this was achieved using XFN (a micro-format), FOAF and a few other technologies. This is still possible to do today, but the service provided by Google had the advantage of using their super-duper-make-everything-fast-cache and actually query several URLs in useful time.

But I do understand why Social Graph API didn’t caught up. In 2007, everyone had 1001 profiles. Their photos were on Flickr, videos on Youtube, blogs on wordpresses/blogspot, microblogs on twitter, and so on. Social networks were popping up for everything thing you could think of.

And then Facebook became popular. In one page, you can have your photos, status updates, videos, games you play, and so on. And with a good permission system. I can share some photos with my friends, but not the world. This gave control to the user, and removed information from the public knowledge, and therefore from Social Graph API’s reach.

Users want control over what they share, and I am totally on board with that¹. I am just sorry that all services are being provided by one company and it increases our dependency on Facebook. I wonder how long will it take for someone to improve the experience and create a new exodus from Facebook to a new platform with other advantages. An no, it won’t be Google Plus.

¹ Although one should never forget that your trusted contacts can share what you did with the world.

There has some buzz about Reading the source code on the interwebz lately.

As someone who teaches Computer Science, I find that most students finish their degrees without having read a single line of code that was not written by themselves, group partner or professor. And given the huge amount of good-quality open source code on the internet this is a very disappointed fact.

In fact, when they find an error on a 3rd party software (being a dependency, middleware or just a library) they simply block and cannot advance. For instance, when debugging a stack-trace in a Java project, once the methods reach out of the scope of their project and belong to something else, they stop debugging and don’t try to understand what is happening underneath.

And in my experience situations where the answer is not in the documentation, but in the source code, happen at least once a month. In fact, I have up reading the documentation for most libraries in Python or Ruby. I end up just browsing the source to learn how to work with them, it’s must faster for me. Unless they have some really complex algorithm, and then the documentation is a pre-requisite to the source code.

I do miss the excitement you used to get when buying a new machine; these days (post-SSD) new purchases are more often about adjusting to a new set of compromises than getting something objectively better.

— Phil Hagelberg’s The Setup

This is exactly why I downgraded to a Macbook Air. And why a lot of folks are downgrading to iPads.

A notícia recente de que o “Copismo” é uma religião oficial da Suécia surpreendeu-me. Na Suécia o movimento pirata e defensor dos direitos dos consumidores contra copyrights tem sido pioneiro no mundo e até bastante sóbrio. Esta notícia chega um pouco ao ridículo.

Até que li o artigo de Rick Falkvinge, o fundador do partido pirate. A ideia é usar a lei relativa ao sigilo profissional, nomeadamente à confessão religiosa. Todas as partes envolvidas numa cópia ou remix de obras passa a ter o estatuto de sigilo.

Isto faz com que qualquer site/tracker/isp que releve dados de utilizadores à polícia, não só anula esse material como prova em tribunal. E vai ainda mais longe: relevar dados sobre utilizadores a fazer cópias passa a ser crime.

Por um lado acho que foi bem jogado esta acção de forma a usar os bylaws para proteger aquilo em que acreditam (quase como se fosse uma religião). Por outro lado, mostra algo em que acredito: a legislação deve ignorar a religião, não a deve considerar nem para novas regras nem para excepções a regras.

Exmos(as) Srs(as) Deputados(as),

Venho por este meio mostrar a minha posição relativa à Proposta de Lei da Cópia Privada, e que certamente é partilhada por inúmeros outros cidadãos que se encontram na mesma situação que eu. Abordarem primeiro as minhas preocupações mais gerais, e depois em particular nos casos que o mereçam.

No texto introdutório da mesma proposta referem que o surgimento de equipamentos que permitam a reprodução em massa veio por em causa os direitos de autor e a devida compensação. Gostaria de relembrar que esses mesmo equipamentos (sejam fotocopiadoras, dispostivos de armazenamento, computadores, leitores de música, etc…) são também usados para reproduzir e armazenar material cujo direito de reprodução não está protegido.

Gostaria de convidar os senhores deputados a fazer uma visita a diversas empresas e verão que o armazenamento digital é usado sobretudo para guardar bases de dados com dados de clientes, produtos, facturas, correspondência, tabelas de preços, documentos internos, etc. As fotocopiadoras usadas são usadas para cópia de documentos internos e externos à empresa que não são comercializáveis.

Ora o que a proposta de lei pretende fazer é aplicar uma taxa a todos os equipamentos de reprodução e armazenamento, independentemente do uso. Eu interpreto que estão a aplicar uma coima pelo uso indevido para cópias ilegais de obras protegidas a todos os cidadãos e entidades colectivas, independentemente se praticam o crime ou não. Considero então esta medida anti-constituicional, na medida em que todo o cidadão é inocente até julgado em contrário, e não deve ser punido por algo que não foi julgado. Certamente os Srs Deputados quererão repensar esta medida a partir da raiz.

Gostaria então de abordar alguns pontos que corroboram o quão pouco esta proposta faz sentido e se enquadra na realidade portuguesa.

1) As taxas a aplicar em materiais digitais é fixa por Gigabyte ou hora de armazenamento. Gostaria de os apontar para este gráfico [1], nomeadamente para a escala logarítmica da capacidade. Tendo em conta que a capacidade de armazenamento aumenta exponencialmente ao longo dos anos, também as taxas propostas iriam. No entanto os preços dos materiais de armazenamento tem ficado na mesma ordem de grandeza. Isto fará com que em poucos anos as taxas sejam superiores ao custo dos materiais. Este ponto apenas mostra como os autores da proposta claramente não têm noção da realidade nestes assuntos.

2) O artigo 5º determina que a compensação equitativa e autores e afins é inalienável e irrenunciável, sendo nula qualquer cláusula contratual em contrário. Este ponto não faz qualquer sentido. Eu como autor tenho o direito de transmitir os materiais da minha autoria gratuitamente. Porque me querem tirar esse direito?

Ainda pior, com a disseminação das tecnologias de gravação de obras (sejam gravadores de audio, vídeo, fotografia ou texto), qualquer pessoa é um autor. Todos os portugueses que tenham actividade na internet sobre a forma de escrita de texto, fotografia ou vídeo (e uma grande maioria o faz nas redes sociais) é um autor. Como é que são recompensados pelas suas obras, da qual não podem impedir que estas taxas sejam cobradas? Quem os representa?

3) No artigo 6º definem a isenção para estas compensações, e na alínea a) referem que estão isentas as pessoas que tenham como objecto de actividade a comunicação audiovisual ou produção de fonogramas e de videogramas, exclusivamente para as suas produções. Ora eu concordo que para as suas produções, ou produções cujos direitos lhe tenham sido oferecidos qualquer pessoa esteja isenta. E não apenas as empresas com esse objecto de actividade. Ora uma empresa de móveis terá de pagar compensações por guardar e copiar um vídeo gravado pela própria empresa sobre os próprios móveis? Esta excepção está claramente muito limitada a um grupo de pessoas mais representados pelos autores da proposta, do que a maioria das pessoas individuais e colectivas portuguesas.

Gostaria ainda de comentar que na eventual possibilidade de esta proposta ser aprovada, tanto eu como várias outras pessoas que usam armazenamento digital vamos passar a adquirir material a outros países. E com a facilidade que existe hoje em dia para adquirir material de fontes estrangeiras e do baixo custo de porte, estariam a prejudicar a economia portuguesa, ao tentar cobrar uma compensação de violação de direitos a alguém que não viola os mesmos direitos.

Para terminar gostaria que reformulassem a proposta, mesmo a partir do zero e que a baseiem na verdadeira realidade portuguesa. Não o façam castigando quem não viola a protecção de direito de autor. Se apenas estão em contacto com empresas do meio audiovisual e se estão apenas a ouvir a parte dos autores de obras comerciais, eu estou disponível, tanto para partilhar a realidade dos utilizadores de meios de armazenamento e reprodução audiovisual, como para indicar personalidades que o façam melhor que eu, e com mais credibilidade.

Agradecido pela atenção prestada, e disponível para ajudar nesta proposta,

Alcides Fonseca

Google has just announced the next version of their “google bar”. The Google Menu is what I consider to be the “Start Menu” of the internet. And this really aligns with the Chrome OS vision of Google, where all devices are dumb clients.

Hello Little Printer, available 2012 from BERG on Vimeo.

Loved the concept from BERG. Dear Santa, can I have one?

… the staff isn’t focused on selling stuff, it’s focused on building relationships and trying to make people’s lives better. That may sound hokey, but it’s true. The staff is exceptionally well trained, and they’re not on commission, so it makes no difference to them if they sell you an expensive new computer or help you make your old one run better so you’re happy with it. Their job is to figure out what you need and help you get it, even if it’s a product Apple doesn’t carry. Compare that with other retailers where the emphasis is on cross-selling and upselling and, basically, encouraging customers to buy more, even if they don’t want or need it…

— Ron Johnson, former VP of retail at Apple.

You can read the whole article on the lessons he learnt with the Apple stores.

LinuxFr.org : If you could return in the past to change the MINIX original proprietary licence to the GPL licence, do you think your system might have become the dominant free OS today?

Andrew Tanenbaum : Never. The reason MINIX 3 didn’t dominate the world has to do with one mistake I made about 1992. At that time I thought BSD was going to take over the world. It was a mature and stable system. I didn’t see any point in competing with it, so I focused MINIX on education. Four of the BSD guys had just formed a company to sell BSD commercially. They even had a nice phone number: 1-800-ITS-UNIX. That phone number did them and me in. AT&T sued them over the phone number and the lawsuit took 3 years to settle. That was precisely the period Linux was launched and BSD was frozen due to the lawsuit. By the time it was settled, Linux had taken off. My mistake was not to realize the lawsuit would take so long and cripple BSD. If AT&T had not brought suit (or better yet, bought BSDI), Linux would never have become popular at all and BSD would dominate the world.

Read the whole interview with the author of MINIX at Linuxfr.org.

Dado que a audiência falava toda português, a talk acabou por não ser em inglês. O vídeo encontra-se em cima e também no site do codebits. Os slides estão disponíveis no slideshare.

Obrigado ao Sapo pela oportunidade.

This is why VC funding is a bubble ready to crash.

The valuation of startups is made based on the early rounds. And those are getting easier and easier because other companies fund the further rounds.

Only a tiny percentage is doing something (mostly being acquired by facebook or google as a easy process of recruiting good people). And the percentage is tiny even for normal VC standards.

If you are an academic, I am sure you have come across with at least one strip of PhD Comics.

What you probably don’t know is that there is a movie. But you can only watch it at official screenings.

PHD Movie Trailer from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

Screening at University of Coimbra (Portugal)

I am currently trying to organize a screening at the University of Coimbra, and will take care of logistics, amphitheater, projector and even popcorns.

Update: Moved to January with a reduced price tag. News later in December.

Here are some random facts about Pittsburgh, PA, USA:

• Filipa had given me the heads up about Pittsburgh Left. But the fact is that they do it at every intersection! By the way, I haven’t seen a sing roundabout since I arrived in the States.
• Elaborating more on the traffic lights, they use the same model for every intersection regardless of one-way streets or other limitations. When we rented a car, we got to drive on a wrong way (well, actually it was a one-way avenue, but there was a lane for buses coming the other way. Pretty weird) because of that.
• The transit signs are very verbose. Since I’m used to the iconic signs in Europe, I find signs that say “Turn left at the next intersection” very amusing. That’s probably why are allowed to drive at 16, reading is the only requirement (and drinking is only permitted at 21).

• People in Pittsburgh are real fans of their sports teams, even the pirates. In fact, one out of five people in the streets is wearing something from the Steelers.
• It is tradition when the Steelers win the Superbowl, to bring your couch outside and set in on fire. In fact this was so common, they passed a law to forbid it.
• Sports for Americans are much more violent than in Europe. They promote physical contact, and I have played basketball where fouls are only when you pull someone to the ground. We have also tried to play indoor soccer, a mixture of hockey and jorkyball with this goal, where to play well, you had to use your body to throw other players against the walls.
• Students also practice a lot of sports and you can see a lot of people jogging in the streets. In fact Universities (Both CMU and Pittsburgh) have a lot of available fields for people to play whenever they want.
• In fact, the typical Pittsburgh University student is always on their sports pants, with their university jersey, and wearing flip flops, even when it’s snowing.
• There is even a University of Pitt Quiddich team
• This is more rare on the CMU, which is mostly filled with geeks. I found out that it’s one of the few top universities that does not provide sports scholarships (You can imagine a football team full of nerds :P). Despite that there are several sports and cultural activities on campus, and on Saturday everyone goes to their clubs to do whatever they like.
• The other day I found a Richard Stallman lookalike here at CMU. I really though it was him and was really impressed just when he turned around and was holding a macbook under his arm.

Dependendo da idade, poderão ter Pais ou Avós (ou irmãos) digitalmente menos literados, e que necessitam de uma mãozinha para certas tarefas. Tirando o Skype (e a funcionalidade Share Screen) que me ajuda a ajudá-los remotamente, recomendo vivamente que tirem 2 minutos para fazer o seguinte:

• Criar conta no Dropbox (affiliate link)
• Instalar no Computador da pessoa em questão
• Definir Dropbox como pasta de Documentos:
  1. Ir à pasta do Utilizador, botão direito do rato em “Meus Documentos”
  2. Separador Localização
  3. Mover
  4. Escolher Pasta da Dropbox
  5. OK.

E pronto, a pasta “Meus documentos” passa a ter um backup automático que o vosso familiar/amigo nem sabe que existe, mas se (e acreditem em mim nisto!) acontecer um imprevisto, vai dar bastante jeito.

Caso a pasta ocupe mais que 2Gb, recomendo que usem um disco externo para backups de ficheiros grandes (para quem guarda vídeos e afins).

I’m writing this post during the halftime of the SuperBowl, in which the team of my future city (Pittsburgh) plays. It’s also my second day in the US and I’ve registered some stuff that I find it different here:

If you want go form one place to another, you have to measure the distance using the Manhattan Distance, except if you go South-east and then you can use the Euclidean Distance by using the Broadway.

Other interesting bit that amused me was to see that smoke comes out of sewage covers just like in Ninja Turtles.

Streets are mostly one way, which makes it super easy to guess when to cross the road, but if I would ever driven here, the transit lights would drive me insane. I’d guess around Time Square, 50% of the cars are cabs, 20% are limos or “long cars” and the other 30% regular expensive cars (BMWs, Porsches, some Prius,..). Poor people use the metro, middle-class uses taxis, rich people have their own cars and really rich people have their own drivers.

Fast food is cheaper than proper food (even bought at the super market and not cooked). For instance, bottle water is more expensive than soda. Maybe this is the reason of the NY’ers overweight.

Some free/public domain ebook sources:

• ManyBooks
• FeedBooks Public Domain
• SciFi free ebooks
• More Sources

I just wanna say that Google is lucky to have someone who takes so much pleasure from working on this issue, and that follows their vision of Android as a platform. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on Honeycomb for smartphones to see the differences he caused on the UI.

I enjoyed quite much the xmas message from Ricky Gervais, mainly because it’s exactly what I think and feel about the issue.

I don’t care wether you are atheist or have a religion, but you should definitely read it! The most important quotes follow:

As an atheist, I see nothing “wrong” in believing in a god. I don’t think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me

“Do unto others…” is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. Buts that’s exactly what it is – ‐ a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now.

And the best is without a doubt:

When confronted with anyone who holds my lack of religious faith in such contempt, I say, “It’s the way God made me.”