I read in online edition of La Voz de Galicia next December, 29th the Jazz Filloa Cafe will be 25 years old.

Jazz Filloa is the mythical pub in Coruña. Their founders Antonio Rodríguez and Alberto Mella are pioneers of jazz in the city. They gave to the pub the classical jazz pey style, the perfect place to spend saturday night

The celebrations will include jam session and filloas (galician style crêpes).

And, by the way, it’s the first post in a new category in my blog: Jazz

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech You,
for that man that sleep in the street, to be the warmth of his heart stronger than winter cold,
for that prostitute that lives in the dangerous night, remember her nobody can steal her dignity,
for that forgotten ancient, to find a friendly soul that takes care of him,
for that lonely child, join his parents again to know what Christmas mean,
for that inmigrant of far country, to reach the frontier with guardians asleep,
for that abandoned pregnant woman, to find the most lovely place for her and her baby,
for us, the faith in your Justice and Love give us the force to hold their hands.

December 24th,2005

I read in Barrapunto the release of Cube Revolutions, IEArobotics Juan González’s worm-shaped robot.

Every documentation about soft and hardware designs are freely downladable (soft under GPL, doc under CC). You can download funny videos of Cube Revolutions too . The target of the project, in author’s words “is to create an open platform to investigate in modular reconfigurable robotics”

I briefly knew Juan in the CTSL’05, he was showing a proceeding about the free card skype.He’s an enthusiast of free soft and hardware, so I want to desire him good luck to the next release of his creatures

Greenpeace Spain has published an exhaustive outlook on the future of renewable energies in our country.

The report was developed by the prestigious Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica (part of Industrial Engineers School) of Universidad Pontificia Comillas. You can download the complete report (pdf, 12 Mb) and the abstract(pdf, 2 Mb) in reports section in their web.

Kioto is not an option, it’s the one and only solution.

Via Slashdot, we know we must welcome to the blogsphere to Tim Berners-Lee, the Wide World Web first developer. We can read in his first post at MIT’s Descentraliced Information Group Tim explains briefly about his ideas fifteen years ago: use of browser-editor, on-line edition of web pages. So, we can bypass from that times to now: current trends aim to use wikis, blogs… and we think these are new ideas!

I won’t make grow the over 450 comments to his first post, so, from here, Sir Tim, thanks for made it possible!

Engeneers near free software desire a powerful CAD program to their GNU/Linux stations, and, when they read news like this in slashdot about little steps to open source by Autodesk they immediately think it’s possible in nearly future. Projects like qcad are too young, varkon is a good project, it’s used by SAAB Aircraft, but it hasn’t specific features to civil engeneering. By now, we must patiently wait.

About this, there is some confusion about file formats. I can read in Beowulf’s blog his post about Autodesk. Beowulf is civil engeneer and he’s Debian developer, so he can see both sides of problem. But I think he’s in a mistake: he’s interested in .dxf to be an open standard. Actually it is an open standard, but Autodesk includes privative extensions. As it’s explained in white papers of Open Design Alliance, .dxf is a poor format. ODA started its actions in order to achieve an open format compatible with .dwg

In 2003 ODA signed an important agreement with Bentley. The Bentley OpenDGN Initiative was born. So, everybody with his work in .dgn (it usually happen in road databases and maps in Spain and several GIS support it) they have complete control over it. Experts think dgn is better format than dwg, too (i.e. dgn supports serious units management).

Then I think the next step is a great free CAD project based in .dgn, not in .dxf nor .dwg

Since before I began to teach to my children in Portiño, every year volunteers planned a party with parents and children, before Christmas.

This year we hadn’t enogh volunteers, so there was no party

We can read at solidaridad.net about the article published in the Sunday Times uncovering the statistics that points around 50 babies survive to abort in one year in England, they often die off the womb. They relate too histories of surivors: a baby now two years old, been taking care by Dr. Paul Clarke, after bearing three abort attempts, and Gianna Jensen, now 28 years old, she talked in the English Parliament about the abort attempt she beared with saline injection. The consequence, she lives now with cerebral palsy. She is part now of Alive and Kicking initiative.

Here is her testimony before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 22, 1996(in English), and the same declaration in Spanish.

SecurityFocus has published an interesting article about what software we trust in. Columnist Jason Miller express some thinkings about both points of view of programmers and users, focusing in open and closed source developing models.

I discovered kernel patches are signed by three or four kernel developers before commit them. Fair, isn’t it?

It happen some days ago, but I didn’t heard about it because I was ill when it happened. My first professor in the Civil Engeneering School, Mr. Juan Ignacio Vázquez Peña, has died because cancer.

I shan’t never forget my first lesson in the School. It happened one December day in 199X, and the half-chinese, bearded eighteen arrived somewhere in Arteixo City, J.I. was teaching about basis of concrete.

The press release, in the web of the College of Civil Engeneers.

Good travel, Sir.

Some people that’s approaching to GNU/Linux ask me the same question: can I install one distribution in an old computer? I usually explain how I install Debian in my Compaq Armada 4131T using nfs or network to get the packets, use 2.4 kernel series, X with WindowMaker…

I read via Slashdot an alternative method: (how to) breathing life in old computers with Damn Small Linux.

I was today in Transport Engeneering class, talking about combined systems, when the yellow bulb lighted. It happen when the teacher was showing carrier ships photos.

I think about I was child, and friends of my family gave me a Tente box. It was Spanish toy like Lego, but the final result was more realistic. That box I received has standard blocks and special pieces to build several kinds of civil ships (I think the present was related to the fact my Dad is capitain in the Merchant Taiwanese Marine).

I spent lots of evenings building ships following the drafts. My parents bought me more Tente boxes with lots of more designs.

I’m aware of difficulties of my school mates to think in 3D with designs, and these problems are
more serious the more they are younger. I think Tente put me in advantage.

By the way, I found a fans of Tente blog (via Barrapunto)

I receive one gift every year because my birthday, of my School friends Raquel, both Silvias and (now far-away-so-close) Olga. Every year is an special gift, but this year the present is more special if it is possible: the 30th anniversary box of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.

I think it’s the best album of the Boss, I wouldn’t quit neither put any song. Raquel and me won’t never forget Thunder Road in concert, the May 15th, 2003 at Molinón Stadium (Gijón). Yes! We were there! After 6 hours of travel and 9 hours awaiting beside the Stadium door!

Thanks a lot, my friends!!!!

I read the new in Slashdot, Microsoft has retained the professional services of Burton Smith, co-founder of Cray Inc. It seems one step to try to push MS cluster group, there is only one Win2003 cluster in the Top500 between more than 370 Linux machines.

Maybe the truth is in an Anonymous Coward comment:” Microsoft also announced Windows Vista will require a Cray supercomputer to run.”

Abstract: We can see in show at Spanish public TV how govern lies to parents and teenagers explaining the called the-day-after pill and in-utero devices are not abortive, when the actual scientific fact they both are abortive.

Informando a padres españoles que ven la televisión pública:

Ayer tenía un poco de fiebre, es la época. Pero la fiebre me aumentó cuando estando tirado en cama, haciendo zapping, me encuentro en el programa “Padres en apuros” que emite La 2 de Televisión Española hacia el mediodía, un reportaje sobre embarazos no deseados. (more…)

Via my friends of Linuxbeat, I’m joining to protest against Spanish Social and Labour Issues Office because its oblivion of Centro de Ayuda a Minusválidos Físicos de Ferrol (Ferrol Attention to Handicapped Center). This residence is the home of handicapped that need strong assistance to live. This letter written by a resident explains how the Spanish Govern promised some years ago to engage more and younger assistants, but at the present day they haven’t done it, and the way of life of residents is critical.
Please send the letter to MTAS to remember them their promises.

It happen a week ago, I didn’t had no time to write about it. But I’m still ashamed about Chinese president Hu Jintao visit in Madrid. He came essentially to make business with Spanish enterprises through the Spanish govern. He talked with King Juan Carlos and signed in the honor visit book of the Parliament,our main democratic institution.

Hey, does anybody know China Hu Jintao is the president of the biggest dictatorship in Earth? Does president Zapatero know to say “human rights NOW“?

I had funny time today. After Maths and Grammar, children of Portiño worked for first time in the computation classroom we assembled with old PC’s of my School.What a pity, I have not photo camera

November, 18th, 1930, was published “La rebelión de las masas” (Rebellion of masses, the great work of the most Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset in the 20th Century. I read the it yesterday, in the opinion section of Domingo Bello Janeiro in La Voz de Galicia newspaper. The columnist thinks Ortega’s vitalist though, his analysis of man in the mass culture and the Spanish political situation not only aren’t outdated. Actually we can apply to the present.

And I agree.

Wild, wild times. I began this week in defcon 1 because three critical points: these are my first days as sysop in the Ports and Coast Engeneering Lab in my School; my group of Territory strightening and town planning(OTU) must deliver the 1st phase of our work about Pontedeume, and I have my first session as teacher in an basic linux short course that Benji and me teach.

And these are the facts:
Monday: I am still tired from climbing on Sunday again to the Castrillón, the street in the highlands of Coruña where lives Rocío, one of my mates in the OTU group. We meet Rocío, Silvia and me to coordinate our works.Then we decide to print the designs in our School. Rocío and me arrive eraly in the morning, and, Silvia comes with her sister Cristina that leave us in the Achitecture School in the Zapateira campus. We see the prices, the methods and delay of the laser printing there and we decide it would be the last option.

Down in Elviña campus again we try to print with inkjet printers in our school, but the only software installed in the PC of A3 printer (the printer is NOT connected to a net) is and old version of Autocad. But we work with Bentley’s .dgn format, because a) the original designs of the goverment were in this format, and b) I was working with .dxf files created by Qcad for GNU/Linux that Autocad doesn’t support neither. (more…)