Great sunday walking around budapest and just having a great time with a very wired or wifi enabled downtown. Cute girls walking around and great weather. Listened to my favorite podcast, keith and the girl and DH Unplugged both quite interesting and fun. So far I’ve been thinking about the rather scary situation my hometown is living right now, my friends and my family back there.
I’ve been reading the tweets and the people have been infuriated with their governor. However I wonder how many people can really act upon it. Like a friend said, I have never seen some governor been fired by inefficiency and basically bankrupting the state beyond sustainability.
Is funny how a friend asked me if budapest was out of the 70′s and even though I agree with some random girl, for the most part people here dress like any other place. So I really think is time to get out of those eastern european cliche.
Going back to my sunday walk, the time can’t be better, the weather is awesome and life is great.
Tags: Budapest, thoughts, travel
Many companies has struggle to build business models around open source, specially one of the promises and challenges is empowering and activate the economy by creating local businesses grow through open source. Support and professional services has been what many companies aim to, however companies still want and need help from a parent organization. Even in commercial world you see this “business partners” who take on the business locally that relates to the parent product. In return the parent gives companies marketing material, seminars on how to sell, and newsletters on how to make sales and money from their products.
OpenOffice.org ES started a program where business could associate to a network to provide services similar to the ones you find on the proprietary world. The business pay a much smaller fee and these membership allows them to have a priority to the top level of the projects as well as start to engineer a true network and flow of talent and services. OOo will function as a hub to collect information and expertise and exchange through the network as needed.
There is a valued added benefit which is that talent can work on solving more complex issues, and generate a knowledge base that could benefit the network but also generate a list of needs that the network could afford to tackle and improved thanks to the FLOSS nature of the software. This will make business needs get solved quicker and critical patches get implemented and prioritize.
For OpenOffice.org project there is a strong benefit to improve the application, satisfy the demands and also improve the overall service level. Is also a great way for companies to contribute back to the project where as before only individuals or small business where flexible enough to contribute without disrupting business processes. Now give back becomes doing business on a similar fashion that Google justify when giving back to FLOSS.
Make sure to check the professional services (in Spanish)section of OpenOffice.org ES and join the partner network network.
Tags: O4Biz, OOoES, Open for business, OpenOffice.org
On the last edition of Campus party I spend the weekend there doing friends and giving talks and geeking out downloading stuff. However I also had lots of cold, didn’t sleep well and had to take cabs every other morning to eat normal food. It was shitty. I then realize that maybe I don’t need to do all that and that home is not such a bad idea to be at. So I set that this time I will spend my time home and watch the party from home. Since most things were going on on twitter anyway I could have a virtual presence of the show. So when I start watching the talks from home and participating on the different live streams, I did felt in the event without the freeze from last time. Instead I was in my maybe too hot room sweating but being comfortable at least in a hamac or a nice chair.
Some of the videos were not really broadcasted but the blogs that have come from the conference did really went into covering the different aspects of each talk. I think that in the end the participation was worth it and even if I would have expected more Campus party news on the blogsphere, the twitter did added a lot of commenting to it.
So about the show, it was pretty good and the quality has gone up since the last time. This is the second edition and it seems that got more people than before, around 6300 people. The quality of the presenters seems to also have gone up by a great deal since this time it was much more diverse. People from Japan, Sweden and the whole continent. The best talks probably where by the guests like Wozniak, Mitnik, and Peter from Pirate bay. There were other interesting talks like the issue with ACTA, Free software in the government, future trends for developers, social development, and other things that went around.
The birth of HTML5 got more critical acclaim from at least a couple of talks that digg around this. There were also home automation projects through twitter as well as other projects regarding smart development.
On the social media space like popular shows like Domo, Nerdcore, Bytepodcast and new shows like Winadas and sociedad libre did their thing on the event and hope that more shows like this come up in the future.
I hope that there was more talks on the free culture aspects such as Lawrence Lessig or Cory Doctorow digital rights for this country. There needs to be more awareness about this things. Things like software for the benefit of humanity is also important to think about and even new business models that can be sustainable.
Speaking about business, I saw some of the elevator pitch for new companies and getting funding for them. The issue became that some of these projects were really not solid enough, most of the time you want to have something working already to see that they are serious about doing it and help out move it to the next level. The people that did the talk, also seemed too nervous and intimidated which I think is something that people should work on. Try to be more techie and try to have more attitude, also don’t interrupt. Some questions are not meant to be answered. I would like to review the talks and maybe study them for the future reference to work about.
On the design section and on the gaming section I didn’t see much, neither heard many people talking about. I guess it was more to relax but I would have love to see the kinetic or the other platforms being showcased. Also heard that the boot babes weren’t hot enough. Last year they were pretty good, specially on their silver tight pants that make their ass made of liquid metal.
Besides this, I don’t have much more insight on the event yet, still I hope we can get together next week with the people that did went to the event so we can know more about what happened.
This was originally talked about in a Mexican LUG mailing list called LinuxCabal. The group has been on for several years, and some of the members are already high level geeks. However even if they develop on their companies, it seems that most of these guys don’t contribute back to FLOSS projects. I am not sure why not, and here is the thing, you don’t need much to start contributing. Most of the needs are more time constrain than witt limitations. So helping a developer is really not that much work if you are at least experience with the framework they use.
There is an underline danger and is the lack of culture in contribution is an issue that is seen in cultures like Mexico but also in many others. They are also have to do with a high context societies and low context societies as well as the social capital that societies have. However it also has to do with the design of it’s people. How much interest is shown to, be part of the project, lead and make it better for everyone.
LUG sometimes are the responsiblle to enforce the consumism of FLOSS because is a less challenging mission. Use it — is FREE!! However not often they go and say, hey let’s make this software better. Traditionally is only a guy doing this decision on himself, but seldomly is a group thing. This is where the culture change needs to happen and make Developer groups from the mature user groups and also inspire the young user groups to immitate.
To do so there is more than will that has to come through, there should also educate on using the FLOSS tools that are used on most of the communities, things like version controll, patches, diff and commits, study the common APIs like XUL, UNO, QT and GTK and just start thinking like production communities think. These are tasks that the modern open source companies can start building on.
Tags: deve;pment, free software, gnome, kde, mozilla, OpenOffice.org
A few weeks back Nujabes was killed in a car accident, he was a producer from Japan, however this week a very close to hip hop history personality pass by ass well. The world of hiphop is mourning Guru from the legendary group Gang starr. The group possessed one of the original styles of hip hop from the caps, to the turntables to the lyrical flow and the energy of what the elements was defined as. The many albums for more than 2 decades was brought by Guru which not afraid to experiment brought the Jazzmataz saga of albums.
However after a long battle from cancer, Guru has pass away and the whole nation of hip hop is mourning. Just looking around at some of the many videos from hip hop icons like Raekwon, paying respect.
Tags: guru, hiphop, rip, tribute
Interesting project to gain 1 million Tux followers to register. Although I most also worry about why do I need to register to one more site, what will happened to that information. Fortunately no email is required so no way to spam you, however you will give your twitter id, although is not enforced.
Still if you think that the 1 million goal is something you want to be a part of, make sure to visit the site here.
1 Million Tux challenge
Tags: free software, linux, tux, users
Back on Wu-ForEver site they re-pulish an article about the Rebel INS upcoming manifesto, the article actually got me thinking into providing a bit of my take. How does the Wu-Tang prime flower shine so much within the group yet so lost in the solo environment… here is my original answer:
You know when I think of the Rebel INS I expect a battle cat with a very guttery like story telling. Unfortuantely you are completely right, his highlights havent really pass to his solo projects. I mean I think of Inspectah on Cold World, talking about “I thought he was death but instead, he hit a 12 yr old girl in the head and then left”.
Or a big opener like Triumph “I bomb atomically, Socrates philosophies and high prophecies, can’t define it how I’ve been droppin’ this“. Just pure epic hiphop gold.
He is definitely a force of nature in his verse, the talent is there, but the inspiration and ability to create momentum goes kind of sour.
I remember Deck doing great collabo’s like the one with Gangstar “I leave scientist mentally scarce, triple extra large, sounds like rockstars who smash guitars“. However when I heard uncontrollable substance, revolution, it was just an angle more of talib kweli than an old shaolin soldier.
Mast Killa album in contrast could recreate the magic, the kung-fu flics, the 120 questions, the science and math was basically in place, and even if his albums was slept on, it was a classic in it’s own nature.
I think Deck need to come back to the shaolin soul, prove his own thoughts, and inspire the pain from the slums. Bring Tekitha, that girl build miracles. The project would be much powerful and gutterful and then you have a master works.
Tags: 120 questions, deck, hiphop, masta killa, shaolin, tekitha, wu-tang
The Wu is back with Wu-Massacre
The other great album that is comming is Army of the Pharaos engaging on the Unholly Terror. The Massacre was great, but AOTP is all about massacring the competition on the mic. With Vinnie Pazuela rippin heads and the whole crew including Eso, Apathy, Celph Title, etc. Best tracks include Bust ‘em In with the symphonic beat, Contra Mantra and Spaz Out. Awesome production by Stoupe, the beats are just on fire, all of them are hard as opposed to Wu-Bangers this has 0% love shit. All hardcore to the fullest.
We go back to the 36 chambers with Manifesto, which Inspectah deck seems to be returning once more with Champion and giving his A game to a consntant slept on emcee. One of my favorite starters INS brings Manifesto and grabs some really cool from the Wu and put fire rhymes on them. From what I heard RZA and Allah Math contribute to this project so expect some banging beats.
Another great group dropping is Reflection Eternal with their awesome album Revolutions per Minute wtih the smashit In this World. Some original Reflection Eternal classic beat with Hi-Tek doing his thing. The video is pretty good too with him banging on an Akia MPC. Talib definetly bring it with some political concious rhymes including the reflection about being just too long under economic depression and already getting used to this desperate sentiment of just loosing it. Unfortunately the other track — paranoid is not really one of my favorites. But I hope the album goes more to “In this World” way. If they keep it RE classic they will remain an awesome group.
Tags: aotp, eso, ghost, hiphop, method man, rae, rap, rebel ins, wu-tang
Rest in Peace
Real name Jun Seba which if you invert the words you get Nuj-Abes, at 38 years old he was involved in a car accident and resulted death. His work was definitely underrated since most true heads would go bananas and compare him with talent similar to 9th wonder and other excellent producers. His more musical concept derived in more soulful beats and even mellow enough to drop into subconscious abstractionism. With classic after classic being remixed in Youtube with Nu’s beats, it seems that many people are actually discovering his sounds and might be the new Japanese J Dilla. Althought I might compare him more with a Hiphop entrepreneur. With one of the largest hiphop stores in Japan, he seems like a fan that single handed built an empire on his passion. Becoming a producer, business man, and presenting in exclusive Korean clubs. His powerful albums Modal Soul, Metaphorical Music and also Samurai Champloo soundtrack are full of classical material. Make sure to check out:
- Aruarian Dance
- Reflection Eternal
- Lady Brown
- Another Reflection
- Supreme Atmosphere
- the space between two worlds
- Shiki no Uta
So far my last.fm keeps collecting Nujabes tracks that have been blasting all day and even this post I dedicate to him. Too bad I wasn’t a more diehard fan, the way this beats sound, it would have probably soundtracked my life for a long time now. If you haven’t heard him, please check one of the following classics:
Tags: accident, announcements, death, hiphop, japan
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