Have you suffered the random whims of Word? Do you have a 5-years old document and you can’t read properly because the version or the word processor missed? Ok, here is an interesting document about why do you must learn to process with LaTeX your documents (especially if you write lots of mathematical formulas): Word processors: stupid and inefficient, by Allin Cotrell.
The document translated in Spanish. Via Barrapunto.
I read in Kriptópolis that Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman released under Creative Commons License the O’Reilly book Linux Kernel in a Nutshell. This book is focused in using and customization of the kernel from user (not programmer) side.
Greg K-H advocated a similar initiative with the releasing of the Device Driver Kit.
One of the actual problems in developing a free operanting system are the wireless devices. Some manufacturers forces to make inverse engineering to avoid the lack of specifications.
Some forces to use a closed firmware. Even some plugs a HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) that taints the kernel. Some weeks ago The Jem Report published an interesting article about this question, an they included the interviews that friendly manufacturers: Ralink, Atmel, Realtek answered (unfriendly ones: Atheros, Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Texas Instruments refused to talk).
Via OSNews, Informit Network is publishing a serie by David Chisnall introducing some styles of paralell programming:
Well, and after the psychotropic attack of the day 
, I’m happy because Sun released a group of new tools (OSNews): Fortress, Sun’s attempt of replacement of Fortran. I don’t know the new features in depth, but it seems it could make happy to some engineers 
By the way, I didn’t comment nothing about my friend in the School of Civil Engneers Victor M. Gomez Traba and me translated to Spanish the G95 Fortran compiler manual. You can download the pdf and TeX sources in my personal page.
D4NG3R!!!!
1′m 4 bl4ck h4t h4c3r 0ut 0f c0ntr01!!! D0n’t 4110w m3 t0uch th3 k3yb04rd!!!
I c4n st34l y0ur id3nt1ty 1n th3 M4tr1x w1th my l4pt0p!!!!
(dedicated to my f*ck*ng funny friends of FIC 0.00 )
Updated Jan,16: GOTCHA!!! I kidnapped your net socket!!! 
Two bad news for jazz enthusiasts: on friday died Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane’s widow and his pianist in the latest years (of course she was performer in the mythical “Olatunji Concert” (April 23,1967); on saturday, the same bad new with saxophonist Michael Brecker.
Alice Coltrane had a musical life after Coltrane’s death. She had her own groups, following the John’s innovative trail. Recently she recorded “Translinear Light” (2004) with one of their three musicians sons, Ravi.
Michael Brecker was a great saxophonist, for jazz, and pop, rock as well. He is well-known as electric, fusion jazz. But I meet him with his brother Randy in a live in the 36 Jazzaldia San Sebastián that RTVE broadcasted in summer of 2001: “Brecker Brothers, the return of the acoustic band” (Randy and Michael Brecker, Peter Washington, Dave Kikoski and Carl Allen). Since then one of my favourite themes is “Nascente” ( Nearess of you: the ballad book, 2001).
Via Tomajazz(es) and JamSession(es).
Updated,Jan.16: obituaries of Alice Coltrane and Michael Brecker in All About Jazz
The legendary Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created OpenCourseWare, a plataform to share pre- and grade courses materials: lectures, notes, exams and more, all under a Creative Commons Lincense. There are courses about all knowledgement fields: Civil Engineering (environmental, town planning, transport and energy, maths, Earth sciences…), Computing science, history, literature…
That’s the difference between a great institution and a great amount of tyrants and social-climbers.
Via slashdot.
Today I meet with my friends of my Civil Engineer School Raquel, Olga, Juan and both Silvias. It’s more difficult year to year this meeting happen, our works and lifes scatter us all around the world. So, this is the taste when we gather…
Sure many people believes that RMS is fool and FSF is losing the way in campaigns like Defective by Design. I was a little skeptic the first time I read “The right to read” near a decade ago. But today I’m a believer, I don’t need to read this very interesting Peter Gutmann’s paper on Windows Vista efforts to convert a general pourpose machine (a PC) in a f*ck*ng branch of music and cinema enterprises.
So I only wish news like the lawsuit of Autodesk against (slashdot) the Open Design Alliance, with the TrustedDWG in the background, will help to my colleagues engineers to open eyes and drop Autodesk products and closed formats in favour of open (and better) formats like DGN.
A very interesting project that joins Civil Engineering and free software has reached its first stable version. gvSIG is a GIS program which development is pushed from the Infraestructures and Transports area of regional government of Valencia (Spain), and funded in part by EU.
One of the more interesting analogy between GNU/Linux vs Windows and biology is, because Windows it’s exactly the same all around the world, a vulnerability is more destructive than vulnerabilities in the GNU/Linux world, where there are different kernels and packages, and different versions of the same kernel and packages. Those differences make the free systems stronger against the same attack.
If we have this thought into our minds, we must be afraid with the agreement of US Food and Drugs Agency to allow the commercialization of cloned animals food(Wired). Once again, the pressure of genetics industry is stronger than citizen’s health.
Here in Spain (and EU, I think) some years ago food manufacturers were forced to tag their genetic-modified products, but now it’s not necessary. I suppose our governors will avoid that step, so we’ll begin to eat the same steak one, and another, and one more time… without awareness.
I read in Taiwan Review a very interesting report about the building of Syueshan Tunnel, in the highway that joins Taipei and Yilan. This is not the longest tunnel in the world (12.9 Km, it’s the four longest, the first two-bore tunnel), but it’s an example of how extreme the geotechnical conditions can be: high resistance rocks, silt and unpredictable water flows. In 1997 a mud flow buried one of the tunnel-boring machine ($30 millions).
The works began in 1991 and the tunnel was opened to public last June.
Because works like this tunnel I’ll ever wonder with geotechnical engineering.
In 2006 RTVE, the Spanish public TV, celebrated the 50 anniversary of its foundation. It was too the beginning of a reorganization (in theory) to improve the policy of former goverments. In fact, the new policy has two clear effects: the first one, RTVE loses great amounts of audience, making shit programmes. The second one, RTVE retires great part of the staff without a future plan to the enterprise (but they are still hiring a new crowd that comes from a government friendly private press group). The general manager, Carmen Caffarel is the main guilty with the Socialist Party who gave her the work.
OK, there are more serious culture problems in Spain like education or intelectual property laws. But today I’m really angry when I read (elmundo.es) that Sebastián Álvaro, the director of Al Filo de lo Imposible will be retired.
Al filo de lo Imposible (In the edge of the impossible) is one of older, better and internationally awarded programmes in Spain. Sebastián Álvaro and his team made more than reports about high-risk sports: they scaled to the highest, they dived to the deepest, they run in the hotest and iced deserts, they showed us the travels of greats explorers following their steps. And the f*ck*ng politics will kill this wonderful adventure.
Updated, Jan. 5th: next Sunday TVE will begin to broadcast a new season(TierrasPolares.es) of Al filo de lo imposible in which we’ll see Ramón Larramendi, Juanma Viu and Ignacio Oficialdegui going 4500 Km in a “polar catamaran” across the Antartic desert. This expedition ended a year ago. Maybe the last Al filo?