Apr 27
2010

Presentation on the first day went quite fast. We had talks half a day instead of a full day. I woke up a bit late althought I came on time but I skip breakfast which later in the day I was really starving. However the talks were a bit dreadful since I don’t like Java and I was falling asleep too. Groovy however was quite interesting since the guy did a good work summarizing.

This presentation seems that I heard of it before in Campus Party, however in this time it was more focused on the language than the framework. Groovy is a hack of Ruby and that Grails from Rails but based in Java which aims to simplify the structure of code and speed up software application development. Certain advantages of Grails is the performance and extensions.

Groovy is like a simplify interface of Java with advantages by saving time by structuring our code so much and define everything in it. It allows to generate objects on the fly and took similar characteristics from other languages like Perl or Python.

I got to give my talk on extension development in OpenOffice.org, which went quite well. Although I actually wanted to write some code. Unfortunately I also didn’t want to write any code because the time length was so short. Most of the time I focused instead on talking about the process and how the code is assembled. Fortunately I got to give a very small demo on the BasicBuilderAddon tutorial which see,ed to be liked by the audience. I guess that you can explain as much thorough but actually doing it is a different thing altogether.

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Apr 22
2010

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

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Dec 31
2009

Nokia smartphone

Nokia N900 smartphone

So in a very sudden turn of events I got myself a N900 device. A device I have been dreaming to hold on my hand for a very long time, and I did hold it for a few seconds in Rome and finally now I can actually use it full time. Thanks to my brother who loan me the money I bought it from MercadoLibre for the great price of 9,000 pesos or 700 dls, which is around 50 dls more of what it goes in the US. I was so excited that I decided to share my excitement with everyone on the web and did an unboxing video so all my network can check out and see what’s up wtih it. In the meantime I also learn a thing or two about Cinelerra including the use of new effects, Cinelerra Community Version is the video recording software from GNU/Linux which is the same OS that the N900 runs.

The N900 is a great device, it has a tactile screen, and on-screen keyboard (through the repository), it has a 5MP camera with LED flash and also integration with Gtalk and Skype. The connectivity is wonderful and the integration is much more advance than the earlier models like the N800 and the N770. The keyboard is also much better than the N810 and finally the screen resolution is also great with more than 250 pixels per inch.

The unboxing was also great and even thought I record it in Spanish I encourage people to see it and check it out:

The video was divided in three sections including the unboxing part, the comparison with other devices, the initial setup and finally the configuration of the device. This makes it a great part of what the video we see is all about.

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Dec 27
2009

 

Bajan Beach

From my point of view, 2009 has been an extension to 2010, basically a stronger development of projects on the professional task of making OpenOffice.org a viable project with independence and more robust roadmap. This year I establish the OOoES as a legal entity, I celebrate contracts with first clients, and got structure an organization.

This year I came close to become a part of the OpenOffice.org Community council and finally gave a talk at OOoCon2009. As a matter of fact I had 4 talks of OOo including some projects where I am playing a key role including OOo4Kids, ODFKit, and OpenOffice.org Certification. With more experience also dealing with people and a more ‘closer’ attitude I hope that 2010 continues my education on making and starting deals.

In basketball I lower my exercise but also came back to be a passionate NBA fan and following my team thanks to online video I was able to follow last season as well as the current. I was able to record my first video playing basketball in a while and also got a new ambition to go back into competing.

On the traveling side, I was able to go to many places, including Barbados, Barcelona, Canary Islands, Brazil, Rome and United states. I was able to travel also withing Mexico and also got in touch with some friends I haven’t talk in a long time. I got to meet long time friends like Leandre and felt happier of having someone to care for.

Technologically speaking I didn’t accomplish more except of maybe keeping trace of whatever is hot including, html5, Google technologies, and some more python.

This year I got to hang a lot more with old friends from school including Victor (College) and Lalo (high school), Alejandro (high school) and now working together on doing something that could be interesting. Also I saw how hard life was for some of my friends and many others I wasn’t able to meet at all. Actually I am quite surprised this year there wasn’t many meetings from friends. However I was able to meet a new community of friends that we share the same passion for technology through the twitter network, we are further getting together to come out with cool stuff to do together including a vidcast and now we are thinking on a network. Another group of friends might come from another acquired passion which is hiphop which this year was rewarded with an unexpected comeback to the Wu renaissance with Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx Pt II and Ghostdini. But a whole crew here in my hometown became visible enough for me to catch the show and maybe even be part of it in the future.

I still burning for an unmatched desire to come back to Europe and stay for a while, same thing in the U.S. and unfortunately I haven’t been in the position to do this, I hope next year I would be able to breakout. I also hope to meet new people and continue my good relationship with my friends. I also hope to get back in shape and workout and also improve my overall health and lifestyle improve in quality.

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Aug 29
2009

For my spanish speakin buddies, there is a new course for Linux Beginners. The course will be carry on top of the moodle platform and registration is free.

Here is the original invitation:

Hola:
Es para informar que están abiertas las inscripciones para el
nuevo curso gratuito que se dicta en LinuxesLibre. Este curso es para
los que recién comienzan con linux, así que tal vez no sea para nadie
del grupo, pero sí para amigos y conocidos.
El curso se dicta totalmente por la web mediante un programa llamado
moodle que es un verdadero colegio virtual con lecciones, evaluaciones,
tareas, etc.

Para inscribirse

http://linuxcursosgratis.org/cursos/login

Para ver los cursos como visitantes

http://linuxcursosgratis.org/cursos

Para ver el indice de temas del curso básico

http://www.linuxeslibre.com.ar/cursos/mod/resource/view.php?id=6

Inviten amigos y conocidos que puedan estar interesados y recuerden que
los cursos son gratuitos.

saludos
Andrés Beny

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May 27
2009

So lately I have engage mostly on the certification aspect of the OpenOffice.org space civilization, or should I say cloud civilization? These past two weeks a lot of things have come through mainly on the OpenOffice.org end toward the stabilization of a certification and many meetings have been addressed on skype calls, IRC and other mediums.
The work we have been doing has suddenly got attention from some of the OOo leads and their will to contribute has been sometimes more than needed. However this post is more about what open questions are still out there and how can the alternatives address such challenges.

  1. Quality of the syllabus and qualification standards
  2. Documentation such as study guides and trainer guides, and who should bare the responsibility for such.
  3. Testing skills vs. knowledge of the application
  4. Relationship with testing centres and entrepreneurial centres

The list could go on and on but these have been some of the topics that have been debated (once more) and some of the ideas have been solidify under better light. One of the biggest conclusion would be that we can finally decide on approving a ground level material for OpenOffice.org Certification so we can start doing the implementation from Core.
Another is that we need to start extrapolating on the syllabus even if this doesn’t go as far as student guide, make it in a sense of action items so the contributors and publishers understand the points we need to achieve.
Evan points out to the reference that LPI holds and notice some great ideas to adopt it into the syllabus. Other goals can be see on the Red Hat camp and this could add us into going to a different place.
Solveig wrote about certification a while back and explains an interest model but don’t really touch these questions however she post new questions regarding the cicles which the certification should be produced and how indepth we could get it.
Another dimension is going into where people are already implementing a large training program for their population in OpenOffice.org. These program includes OpenOffice.org training and a certification could pose a great tool for further developing their training and support. So the Spanish population into and trainers that fuel these deployments could be great resources to make the certification listen to their needs. Andalucia and Valencia each have programs to train their teachers that go into the regional schools to train them in OpenOffice.org and their view could be very valuable to qualify them as trainer.
Getting all these points together and checking all the point of views would make it very hard to come to a consensus. But as opposed that in the past, this time there will be deadlines and timelines and will close upon a certain point of the discussion also modifications would be expected as any other certification and we hope tha we can get also a great certification revolution for OpenOffice.org finalize by the end of 2008.

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Apr 26
2009

This week I have been with my ankle recovering from a nasty twist that I suffered while playing basketball. Nevertheless I think that some of the most important talks I have had has been when I went with my friend Luis to get away from the intense heat and have a frozen coffee and enjoy of the free wifi. We had a talk on the future of Tabasco as far as web 2.0 and technology is concern. he told me that through his brother he manage to met a bunch of kids that want to start a web 2.0 venture. However this fear doesn’t just go to the web but to technology as a whole.

Unfortunately we see that there is not enoughknowledge from the kids coming out from school about the web, business and ho to structure their idea. At the same time I think that one of the people I wil have more hope will be ex/linux users or people tha participate with GULTab. So far I have one reference that has been pretty positive. Vkn a college student that has taken some how of leadership in his school and have been strong on pushing FLOSS in his univerisity.

He had worked on the college radio on spreading the FLOSS knowledge. He also have managed the development of FLISOL. He definetly has been a kid that has dkept on with the information about what free software and technology can do for everyone. However my question comes with what about the rest of the ex-GULTAB people, have they kept with Linux and free sofwtare?

Lately I found a blogpost from Darkness that talked about the good ol days where GULTab was forming and the fun time that wee shared. After that however I saw a lot of the ex people from GULTab jumping in a conversation about what we can do in the future and revive the organization. Sadly I dont see it likely but I wonder what have they been keep doing and if they finally succeed in their enviroment.

El_Diablo dissapeared from the internet but you can still see his old blog from 2003. Kamelott seems to be blogging still, al3jandro (Darkness) still is an avid blogger; eMac also has a pownce account and twitter; OnlyAngel still tweets and finally alzate who I still don’t know what he do besides his 9 to 5.

I also don’t know much about mittohuffman except he works like crazy and Dav_0r that also have very little internet life. PCero still online but do very little from what I have googled. Maybe they are doing stuff but I dont know much about it. Anyway I do hope at least their linux love still on and the internet still not a foreign land.

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Aug 20
2008

This is a great and awesome book that should be put on every geeky clan. The parody of having linux in your favorite roadkill make me think that there will be a flix about linux powered zombies. The way the whole book is portrait is actually interesting having many puns and just written like many Linux HOWTOs. The book so far has make me wondered if this is the first of a trend of self-ironic books that take the geeky customs of many communities and make hillarious fun while at the same time driving a cold chilling message arround.

Before this post gets too dark, I’ll leave you guys with the cover…. pure awesomeness…

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Jul 26
2008

So finally I start to getting more contacts talking about code. This was a pretty cool way on how to talk code. Combine VINO with Skype and you have a cross platform realtime platform to discuss code and other things on the computer. Right now we can have a 2 way conversation fixing the machine or debuging code without much mind.

I think this is a great advantage to learn how to program and how to fix your work with people from all over the world. Now we only need a way to send that stream across the internet and we could have real time live computer sharing and even recording.

By the way we do all these in Linux, maybe voip should also be replaced and use ekiga instead just to avoid freedom hating.

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