Aquí queda de manifiesto el borreguismo y necedad de seguir con el cacareado horario de verano; Esta medida inútil en México se implementó en un momento en el cual el partido en el poder tenía “capital político” para impulsar dicha medida, a un altísimo costo de descontento social.
Las causas reales del “horario de verano” es para tener paridad con Estados Unidos, para operaciones comerciales. Nótese que ni siquiera en Estados Unidos se le tiene completa fe al susodicho horario, pues en Arizona no se implanta esta medida, y como siempre México (Sonora) donde le conviene tampoco lo implementa (¿no que era para ahorrar energía? ¿por qué no se aplica parejo?).
Ahora, ante la imposibilidad de modificar esta medida por la endeble posición del PAN en las cámaras, y la cercanía de las elecciones, para ajustarse al cambio que el año pasado se dio en Estados Unidos, donde otro necio (George Bush) decidió ampliar dos semanas a cada lado el horario de verano, la BMV se deja de tapujos y al cambiar sus horarios de trabajo, levantándose una hora más temprano con tal de ganar dinero como la ristra de avaros sedientos de dinero que son, nos da a los detractores del horario de verano la razón, para decirles lo siguiente:
“SI QUIEREN TENER UNA HORA MÁS DE LUZ, LEVÁNTENSE MÁS TEMPRANO, BOLA DE FLOJOS”.
Y como lo prueba la BMV, cuando hay interés de por medio, bien que se puede. No se vale que al resto de la gente nos obliguen a levantarnos más temprano (sí, el flojo soy yo, ¡y qué!)
Risk is a constant for today’s companies. Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM (well, maybe not so much with IBM), Toyota… they all take risks developing and testing new technologies. The risk lies in the amount of money and resources they devote to creating new technology. When said technology involves keeping a team to upgrade, fix and evolve it, the risk multiplies. The risk is mitigated if the technology is successful and provides a reasonable return on investment. Indeed, the whole point of “risking” your resources is so that created technology might prove a commercial success and yield the company many times the investment.
However there are times when things don’t go quite right and a company has to “cut its losses” and scrap a project or product altogether. Google has done it, IBM has done it (PS/2), Apple has done it (the Lisa). Microsoft has done it many times, and in doing it yet again they help me make my point today.
“Users of Microsoft’s 3D simulation platform have been rocked by news that the company has laid off off or reassigned most of the of the platform’s developers“, reads an article at thestandard.com. Microsoft has a 3D simulation platform? Well yes, as part of their venerable Flight Simulator product (has the honor of being the first piece of commercial software I bought, circa 1988), it seems they had spawned off a 3D simulation product. Microsoft’s announced enhancements to the platform meant it was going to be targeted at markets such as real estate, city planning, and law enforcement. And developers for these industries were thrilled, and had already begun work on applications using Microsoft’s ESP technology.
Maybe the reason is the current economical climate; whatever, Microsoft seems to be shedding a lot of “non-essential” teams, among them the Flight Simulator team, followed closely by the ESP team. Streamlining seems like a sensible tactic for a profit-oriented business, right?
Users don’t seem to think that way.
“As a commercial developer who is currently working on two major ESP projects I can’t begin to express the concern I have hearing this news. I look forward to hearing from Microsoft as to the future plans for ESP”
“I’m gutted that this is probably no longer going to see the light of day. It looks like there were a lot of people working really hard to build a revolutionary product. It must be totally crushing for them to see all that work go to waste.”
‘my company used it for a solution and invested time and money into getting it approved and purchased. Microsoft sure handed us a raw deal for taking a gamble on their platform.’
Anyway, my point with all this is that proprietary software is a bad idea. Microsoft is the embodiment of all we loathe in a software company; however much they talk about being business partners, the current schism is a sample, a reminder that, should your business no longer be profitable to them, Microsoft won’t hesitate to hang you out to dry. The bottom line is all that matters to them. And their use and selling of proprietary technologies means that, should the worst happen, you’re left with no recourse but to throw all your investment away and start anew with some other product, hoping that that other company won’t do the same to you.
Rather than risking this, why not go free software? Things would be very different if Microsoft opened up ESP; it’s not like they’re going to profit from that anymore. That way companies with a reasonably talented developer pool might take the project forward, as has happened with many open-sourced, formerly-commercial products (Blender comes to mind). That’s a company that protects your investment. Microsoft just ripped them off, plain and simple.
For all those companies developing products using ESP, it’s likely their business is not primarily software development. Thus they chose to go with a commercial, specialized software vendor. And look what happened to them! Even if they don’t have the in-house expertise to develop something like ESP, a pooling of resources or funding a non-profit tasked with developing and freely releasing an ESP substitute would make sense. A law enforcement organization sees no competition from a real estate, architecture or urban planning company, so what’s it to them if they use the same, freely-developed product on which to base their custom offerings? (look at Unreal Engine and what ID Software does with their Quake FPS engines; also, ID software has open-sourced their old releases, which rings true with what I’m ranting about here). Again, as long as it’s not their core business, there’s no problem with them cooperating in the creation of a component for their main project.
Misery loves company and at least, through heated discussion in MSDN, those users who were wronged by Microsoft have come in contact with each other and might, if they have the vision to venture into the world of free software, have an opportunity to make sure this never happens again to them or others wanting similar technologies.
OK, so I happily hack away on my Rails application on a Debian box with Ruby 1.8.7 and Rails 2.1.0, and then deploy to a Fedora 8 server with Ruby 1.8.6 and Rails 2.2.2. All of a sudden a particular release causes Passenger to spit an error page on application startup. The key error was:
undefined method \`empty?’ for nil:NilClass
Now I’m combing all over my code to find where I’m using “empty?” but I’m sure it’s somewhere that gets run on application startup, otherwise it wouldn’t show up when Passenger tries to start the application. But I find nothing and I’m about to shoot myself.
Following the trace I end up hacking Ruby’s erb.rb file, as there appear to be some bugs in this; indeed, this one from 1.8.6 is different from what I have in 1.8.7, so the app runs fine here. I try to fix instances where empty? might get called on a nil object, but after fixing 3 of these the app stops responding altogether. Hmm, so something, somewhere, depends on erb.rb’s buggy behavior. Best to leave it alone.
HOWEVER, on the deployment server, running with script/server works fine; it’s only when using Passenger that things blow up.
Finally I find this thread that points me in the right direction:
One of the users dropped some JPEG files into the /app/views/static directory, and that seems to be jamming up the works with 2.2.2.
Indeed, as part of my last set of revisions, I’d left several samples of static content I was converting into dynamically generated pages; sure enough, they included JPGs and whatnot. Just to be safe, I decided to move the entire directory into public to avoid any problems.
Now the app runs just peachy and I only wasted 2 hours chasing down this bug. Thanks to the guys at Nabble!
Eventually it all boils down to this Rails bug reported at Lighthouse. So hopefully it’ll be fixed soon. In the meanwhile, keep binary files out of your views subtree.
I’m attaching the entire Passenger error page, in case it’s useful to anyone. Mainly so that Google can find it faster for other people with this problem.
There may be a syntax error in the application’s code. Please check for such errors and fix them.
A required library may not installed. Please install all libraries that this application requires.
The application may not be properly configured. Please check whether all configuration files are written correctly, fix any incorrect configurations, and restart this application.
A service that the application relies on (such as the database server or the Ferret search engine server) may not have been started. Please start that service.
Further information about the error may have been written to the application’s log file. Please check it in order to analyse the problem.
A note on Slashdot says “[Nintendo] has requested help in dealing with piracy overseas, both from the US government and from several other countries in particular. China, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and Paraguay are listed as the greatest contributing nations to piracy of the company’s products.”
Nintendo needs to realize that there’s no way piracy will stop in Mexico unless they lower their prices. A Wii is almost twice as much in Mexico as it is in the USA, costing the equivalent of over 350 dollars here. Games aren’t much cheaper. And Wii Points cards are also twice as expensive here.
It’s also pretty hypocritical of Nintendo. Wiis are plentiful in Mexico, even at times when news of shortages elsewhere were common. The reason is that, since the Wii is so heavily marked up, Nintendo does profit more by selling here in Mexico than in the USA (similar to how they diverted shipments to Europe because higher prices there gave them more profits). However, while there are those mexicans (like me, sadly) who would indeed pay twice the price for the console, which is very convenient for Nintendo, the vast majority of the population can’t afford those prices. So they resort to piracy in order to get their games; buying stolen for their consoles; and (worst of all) buying an XBox instead, because the XBox is 60% the price of a Wii here in Mexico.
This will continue, however hard Nintendo tries to push mexican authorities, because they don’t care; Mexico is a land of impunity, where drug dealers get away with murdering and torturing, often in broad daylight. Obviously the authorities have their hands full and no time for a game company crying wolf because their products are getting pirated. And anyway, it’s too easy for the “pirates” to bribe the police officers who come to seize their goods and try to arrest them; they, too, are starving and would welcome a few thousand pesos in bribes (or, why not, a shiny new stolen Wii for their kids).
So if Nintendo wants to reduce pirating of their products in Mexico (they can’t stop it altogether), they need to make sure their prices are more in line with what they charge internationally (The USA, specifically). That way more people can afford them legitimately, and there will be less incentive for piracy. However, culturally, legally and politically, the complete erradication of piracy in Mexico is an impossibility. Just ask Microsoft.
I’ve written before about how people in Mexico have zero road culture, which leads to a complete breakdown of road infrastructure. A lot of this infrastructure’s correct operation depends on people abiding by the law. Yet most people do not. Usually the consequences are from nil (parking in a handicapped space for a moment, leaving your car double-parked, parking in front of a house’s garage) to a relatively minor fine (parking illegally and THEN getting towed because the tow truck happened to be nearby).
However, when physical security of moving vehicles is dependent on the assumption that people will respect the law, things do indeed break down.
The metrobús is a Bus Rapid Transit system, which opened in 2005 in one important Mexico City avenue, and has enjoyed (in my opinion) great success, reducing transport times, improving traffic flow for private vehicles, and getting rid of dangerous Peseros along Insurgentes avenue. Everybody in Mexico knows Peseros are the worst offenders when it comes to traffic violations, where they blatantly run red lights, invade lanes, and generally do what they please without regard for others. So their sole disappearance was a blessing.
The price to be paid for this was that, since the metrobus runs on central lanes, left turns are forbidden along the avenue’s 26-km length. The reason is obvious: at the very least a significant disruption of traffic might occur if the bus has to stop for a car that’s trying to left-turn. At worst, the metrobus, a double-length behemoth, might hit another car with deadly consequences.
It’s been 3 years of the Metrobus operating, and this year a second line (running along eje 4 sur) was opened. This has caused an uproar because it appears this line has been misdesigned, creating several “death traps” and spots where, due to lack of space, cars and pedestrians have a tough time getting through. This has led to 18 accidents since the new line opened.
Some asshole in the government who needs urgent math lessons said that “98% of accidents involving the metrobus are due to private car driver’s imprudence”. For starters, 98% of 18 is 17.64, and assigning partial blames is absurd.
Anyway, what’s indeed clear is that most of the accidents are due to lack of culture by drivers. The all-too-common notion that “nobody wants to have an accident and if I just swerve violently in front of someone they’ll stop and swear at me but I’ll get my way” fails when the “someone” is a 15-ton monster traveling at 60 km/h with 30-meter stopping distances.
Sometimes, then, images are worth a thousand words, so I’ll leave you with the conclusion that while it’s necessary to guarantee that people operating a car need to have a minimum of road education, it’s also not going to happen because the “it’s ok just this one time” mentality rules, and as long as we’re giving driving licenses to anyone without a driving test (right, in Mexico there are no driving tests, you just pay for your license and you get it) things like this are going to happen. I also leave you with an eye-opening video of exactly whose fault it was for the accident, a picture of which is at the top of this message.
A new version of BerryUnitConverter is up. This one adds data units as well as Blackberry Storm compatibility. Let me know of any problems. Get it at the usual place.
So today as we take the dogs for a walk and go to Burger King to get lunch, I’m waiting with the beasts in the parking lot. Since nobody respects handicapped parking, the lot’s handler has placed two carts, one on each parking space, to reserve them for people who actually need them. However, big mistake, he left enough room for one car between the carts.
So indeed, this cretin arrives, squeezes his car between the carts and in the process uses up not just one, but TWO handicapped spaces. He leaves the car running so his daughter inside can enjoy A/C; never mind that the idiot has the sunroof open, letting hot air inside. He then goes into the store and spends I don’t know how long inside. I don’t know because I left. The best part? there were open spaces elsewhere in the parking lot.
Here in Mexico you see this sort of thing all the time. People don’t seem to respect the law or regulations or signs or anything. They just do what they want, and usually nobody even tries to stop them. In any case they usually get off with some snide remark.
So people double-parking at school to pick up the kids, using up handicapped spaces, or even two parking spots (nice semi you got there, idiot), running traffic lights because, hey, nobody’s coming anyway so why should I wait?, or parking in front of other people’s houses “I’ll only be a minute, thanks!”, it’s bread and butter here.
A chronic lack of respect for your co-citizens might speak badly of a few rude people if that’s all there was. However the phenomenon is rampant and happens more and more every day. So I have to think that it’s an education problem; people no longer think it’s necessary to be nice to your neighbor. Indeed, the consensus is now that “it’s better to come off an abusive cretin than a yielding loser”. Sorry but I’d rather not stay here long enough to start thinking that myself.
Hace unos días el Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) repartía este panfleto en las casas de la colonia, posiblemente en busca de promover y obtener aprobación popular a sus absurdas medidas de “beneficio”, y obviamente con miras a mejorar su perfil en la capital de México, rumbo a las elecciones federales y locales de 2009. Cabe mencionar que según las leyes electorales, el incurrir en actos de campaña antes del periodo estipulado es ilegal; en este caso otorguemos el beneficio de la duda, pues aunque el propósito es claro, estoy meramente suponiendo, y de cualquier manera como veremos el panfletito tiene mucha tela de dónde cortar.
¿Qué está haciendo el PAN en el Distrito Federal?, pregunta el panfleto. Hay muchas respuestas: como todo capitalino sabe, en la ciudad el PAN es un partido de oposición, pues el D.F. ha sido bastión del PRD desde 1997. Así, el PAN ha quedado reducido a cacarear sus magros logros en materia electoral, a confrontar al gobierno local desde las delegaciones “bien” de Miguel Hidalgo y Benito Juárez, e intentar meter zancadilla a los perredistas desde el generoso cobijo de la silla presidencial que ocupa el PAN desde el año 2000.
Sin embargo, cercanas las elecciones, el PAN quiere cambiar y dar una imagen de un partido que se preocupa por la gente, con medidas de corte abiertamente populista, el mismo que tanto le criticaron a López Obrador y a sus antecesores.
Este panfletito nos informa de las excelentes campañas y programas que el PAN tiene para nosotros en la ciudad. Veamos.
Primero nos presentan una campaña para “regular las marchas y manifestaciones”. Desde luego que las marchas son incómodas, y la propuesta del PAN de hacerlas “a un ladito para que no estorben” difícilmente va a prosperar. Las razones son dos: primero, el objetivo de una manifestación pública es efectivamente el molestar y llamar la atención. Una iniciativa que pretende quitarlas de enmedio es tan absurda como el “manifestódromo” de Pekín, y es cuestión de tiempo para que se caiga en negar el permiso a los manifestantes, que entonces volverán a recurrir al manifestarse sin ninguna ley de por medio. Sólo que ahora se tendría pretexto para levantarles proceso por violar una ley; es decir, que lo que dice el panfleto de “garantiza la libertad de expresión” es una vil patraña.
De hecho el problema es tan importante que sería digno de organizar un referéndum para recoger la opinión popular al respecto; el mecanismo empleado por el PAN únicamente muestra las firmas “a favor” lo cual constituye una muy bonita manera de falsear el apoyo o rechazo que tenga la medida en cuestión.
En segundo lugar tenemos un intento de atacar las políticas de transporte público del gobierno local. Las “más de cinco mil encuestas denunciando el deterioro del metrobús” es un descarado y burdo ataque a un proyecto abiertamente impulsado por las autoridades perredistas, y no persigue otro fin que el de enfocarse en los proyectos más visibles mientras que el PAN, como es su costumbre, ignora y deja a un lado el verdadero problema en transporte público: los microbuses, tema que se ha discutido a profundidad en este y otros espacios. Desde luego para el PAN es más importante que en los metrobuses se corrija el cierre de puertas (sin detallar cuál es el problema con dicho proceso), y no les importa que 94% de los microbuses operen sin concesión, ni que las pérdidas económicas y en vidas de la operación de dichos transportes sean cuantiosas. El gobierno local está atacando ese problema, mientras que el PAN simplemente lo ignora y se enfoca en medidas para que no “manoseen” a las pasajeras del metrobús.
También se propone una medida para “proteger” a los capitalinos de los “aumentos repentinos” al transporte público. El gobierno local es de hecho el que primordialmente ha defendido la no alza a las tarifas del transporte; y únicamente se autorizaron, después de muchos años y muchos reclamos, alzas a las tarifas de transporte concesionado, que por tratarse de empresas privadas están siendo afectados por la carestía que ha fomentado la mala política económica del gobierno federal (panista desde hace 8 años). El transporte municipal dependiente del GDF ha seguido con las mismas tarifas desde hace años. De modo que los dichos “aumentos repentinos” son completamente inexistentes; existen sólo en el mundo azul del panfleto que nos ocupa.
También el PAN sale a nuestra defensa con el “bachómetro” gracias al cual los particulares podrán denunciar al gobierno local si su auto cae en un bache y sufre desperfectos. Saquemos dos puntos a relucir: el primero es el castigo que el gobierno federal ha impuesto al GDF, al dejarlo fuera de muchas partidas presupuestarias, con lo cual se reduce el monto que se puede destinar a obras de mejoramiento urbano, lo que redunda en la “pésima” calidad del pavimento en muchas avenidas. Aún así, el gobierno local ha emprendido programas de repavimentación, como la molesta obra que se lleva a cabo en Circuito Interior, y que por su naturaleza técnica requerirá menos mantenimiento y será menos vulnerable a los caprichos y venganzas del gobierno federal.
El segundo punto a mencionar es la doble moral con que opera el PAN; ¿por qué no se extiende esta iniciativa a las carreteras federales, que en ocasiones están en tan mal estado que causan, no sólo desperfectos, sino muertes y accidentes? ¿qué tal que una ley similar protegiera a las víctimas inocentes del caso Mouriño? Desde luego esto nunca va a suceder, porque aunque suene increíble, el mismo panfleto nos dice muy claramente a quién pretenden atacar: “podrán reclamar cualquier deterioro causado por una acción, omisión o negligencia del gobierno local“. OJo señores: castigo para el gobierno local, y completa impunidad y desvergüenza para el gobierno federal.
A continuación el PAN denuncia la “arbitrariedad” con que se demolieron inmuebles patrimonio de la humanidad. Nuevamente no se aclara cuáles ni se dan mayores detalles. Y de nuevo se ve la paja en el ojo ajeno, mientras que la viga en el propio (la descarada venta del patrimonio histórico y cultural de la nación por parte del gobierno federal, véanse casos Teotihuacán, Chichen Itzá y El Tajín) pasa completamente desapercibida. También tenemos esta instancia en la cual las autoridades panistas de la delegación Benito Juárez demolieron un inmueble con valor histórico. Así que de nuevo es un caso de doble vara para medir y criticar las acciones.
El PAN, siempre preocupado por nuestra economía, nos protege contra el aumento del impuesto predial, por medio de amparos que privan al gobierno local de lo que se está convirtiendo en su única fuente de ingresos, luego de que es estrangulado y pasado por alto al momento de repartir los impuestos federales. Es bien conocido mi rechazo al impuesto predial en el DF, sin embargo ni en este caso es posible simpatizar con el PAN porque nuevamente se mide con distinta vara; y no se menciona la onerosa carga tributaria a que nos somete el gobierno federal. Nunca veremos al PAN promoviendo amparos contra el “gasolinazo”, reducciones al IVA e ISR, el retiro del IETU, impuesto a depósitos en efectivo ni IEPS.
Una de las iniciativas de ley más discutidas en 2008 fue la ley que legaliza el aborto en el DF. Es la única entidad del país donde se brinda este derecho a mujeres embarazadas que por razones personales no desean tener un hijo. Es poco sorprendente que el PAN, un partido de corte ultraconservador, pretenda implementar programas para disuadir el uso de este derecho. Lo que sorprende es el cinismo con que afirman que “6 de cada 10 capitalinos se opone” a dicha práctica “por considerarla un atentado al derecho a la vida”. Ya que de nuevo se cae en afirmaciones tendenciosas y no respaldadas por un método estadístico, por lo cual es igual de fácil que yo les diga “no es cierto, 6 de cada 10 están a favor” y no tienen argumentos para rebatirlo.
El PAN abrió un portal en internet para “denunciar de manera anónima” y evitar que “se vuelva a repetir la negligencia ocurrida en el operativo News Divine”. El nivel de absurdo al que se llega con este programa es tan inaudito como la grotesca maniobra de “colgarse” del caso específico y mediáticamente muy sonado de News Divine; claro que se hace mención de ese caso pues es la mejor táctica sensacionalista para obtener publicidad. Claro que no se habla de una línea de denuncias para compras irregulares y procesos gubernamentales mal llevados, para que no se “vuelva a repetir la negligencia ocurrida en el caso Mouriño”. Eso desde luego no les sería nada conveniente.
Así que este es el partido que nos gobierna: el PAN, un partido ultraconservador al grado de ser retrógrado; un partido que busca el sensacionalismo y la publicidad para intentar aplastar al rival; un partido que prefiere la mercadotecnia que un discurso político inteligente y programas económicos y sociales que realmente ataquen la causa del problema en lugar de maquillarlo; un partido que no aprende de sus (muchos) errores y abre el panfleto diciendo que “la Ciudad de México ocupa un pésimo lugar en lo referente al nivel de calidad de vida”; independientemente de que nuevamente se cae en afirmaciones arbitrarias y sin ningún sustento numérico, sería bueno que se dieran una vuelta por el resto del país para que constaten que en realidad todo México ocupa un pésimo lugar. También se dice que “en 13 de las 16 delegaciones han empeorado considerablemente”.
Desde luego está implícito que dos de las delegaciones donde todo es color miel son MiguelHidalgo, cuyo gobierno es encabezado por la panistaGabrielaCuevas y es omnipresente en las páginas de los periódicos por la cantidad de controversias, encontronazos con el gobierno local, escándalos de corrupción, pleitos con los vecinos, viles maniobras para salirse con la suya y malos manejos en que se incurre; y Benito Juárez, a cargo del también panista Germán de la Garza, y escenario de perennes problemas de construcciones ilegales, fruto de la codicia de las autoridades panistas que llegan exclusivamente a beneficiarse de jugosos contratos de los que obtienen una tajada, y de arbitrariedades como ésta, justo de la clase que el PAN denuncia… cuando le conviene.
Tras este breve recorrido por las afirmaciones del PAN en este panfletito, espero haya quedado claro que ellos sí son un peligro para México.
Few internet companies or services or phenomena, if you will, seem to attract as many visceral reactions as Twitter. First there was the whole buzz about Twitter and Ruby on Rails, which always excites passions. Then the “Rails doesn’t scale” debacle. Next the “built wrong” accusations. Twitter even got some sprinklings from Zed Shaw’s spectacular departure from the Ruby scene. Then Twitter screws over their users and stops SMS service basically everywhere but the USA.
Recently Twitter indirectly angered another user community when they hired Rael Dornfest, creator of personal productivity apps I Want Sandy and Stikkit. The problem is that Mr. Dornfest decided to kill both services, altough he will take the “intellectual property” behind them to Twitter. Of course he is within his right to terminate a service that was free and under no promises, but all the users who had come to rely in these apps certainly don’t agree.
Sandy’s user community seems to be, by far, the most affected: messages at Rael’s “going offline” announcement range from the indifferent few to the truly upset, inflamed and disappointed at the whole Web 2.0 thing, specially Twitter. “Karma’s a bitch”, says one comment, and it’s true that Rael’s decision to leave users hanging out to dry will bring him and a whole bag of negative karma to Twitter. As another poster said, “I’d be weary of using any Twitter product with your name on it”.
Will Sandy and Stikkit return as twitter add-ons? possibly, but the real lesson to remember here is this: Twitter itself is also free, so it might go away at any time the creators decide it’s in their best personal interest to kill it and move on. So are most Web 2.0 apps. So if you must use them and learn to depend on them, you’d better make sure you choose the ones that, at least, let you get your data out when they die.
So today as we take the dogs for a walk and go to Burger King to get lunch, I’m waiting with the beasts in the parking lot. Since nobody respects handicapped parking, the lot’s handler has placed two carts, one on each parking space, to reserve them for people who actually need them. However, big mistake, he left enough room for one car between the carts.
