(a break)

after some days without finding a good reason to write, i have decided to take a break from blogging. nothing serious, no trauma or anything, just a break. see you soon.

New blog on the kids

With this ridiculous play on words, I announce you that I have just finished designing the draft of my second blog, des[h]uso (which is also a play on words, this one quite decent) It's a blog in Spanish (you have to learn Spanish! :) mainly focused on Sustainable Human Development. It's part of a project I proposed to my PhD classmates at the end of the last academic year, so we all would be able to post about events, articles, thoughts, pieces of news, etc. related to the topic above mentioned. Therefore, it will hopefully be an enriching, collective blog.
(on the superficial side of the thing, what do you think of the design? i didn't use a single table, everything is semantic markup!)

Developing Nations Creative Commons license

So today I learnt about this new and stupid Civil Code that is soon to be approved in Spanin, but I also learnt about the Creative Commons license for Developing Nations. The CC Developing Nations license allows you to invite a wide range of royalty-free uses of your work in developing nations while retaining your full copyright in the developed world. A developing nation is any nation which is not in this World-Bank list of high-income economies. For example, you might be a musician, writer, photographer or researcher that wants to maintain full copyright in North America and Western Europe, but welcome use by others in the country of Brazil.
To mark your work with the CC Developing Nations license, just go here.
To learn about Creative Commons, go here
Funny PS: CC licenses are protected by a CC license as well.
Serious PS: it's still not very clear how CC licenses work outside the US, though there are several projects to adapt them to as many countries as possible, and eventually the whole world.
Naughty Fruitman PS: i still haven't taken the time to copyleft my blog with a CC license.

They are getting there

So now it turns out that it is illegal to make your own copies or remixes of CDs for personal use, according to the new Civil Code of Spanish Law. The thing is: it is illegal to break any anti-copy mechanism of a CD. Therefore, since all CDs are nowadays protected in some way, any copy of a CD is illegal.
Paradoxically, the SGAE (the Spanish equivalent to the RIAA in America, the organism responsible of protecting the rights of authors) introduced last year a tax on every virgin CD sold on Spain, no matter whether you used it to store your drawings or to copy music, to "compensate for the loss of money due to CD piracy". Ever since last year, they've made 36 million euros. Now they think this tax is compatible with the new civil code, which makes it illegal to copy any protected CD. What do they want, law or market? You cannot have control over both. You cannot make people pay a tax to compensate for an illegal activity. It would be like charging a tax for guns, to compensate for the victims of murders (which is actually quite a good idea, by the way ... just that is screws my reasoning. anyway, you know what i mean)

Back to Woody Allen

I am now heading off to read an interview with Woody Allen. Every year, Woody comes to Europe to present his new movie, and gives an interview to El Pais, the best spanish newspaper. This year, he presented the movie at San Sebastian instead of Venice, something which has made all the Spanish film lovers very proud of their country.
It's a tradition that I particularly like to follow: on wednesday, Woody presents the movie. On Friday, you have the comments about his new movie (always the good ones) And to finish the week, the Sunday newspaper has an interview with Allen on the magazine. He will have a couple of sentences to make me think and laugh. I love him, I love the people who make me think and laugh, and don't ask for anything but thoughts and laughters in exchange.

En Guerra

Today I visited the exhibition En Guerra (At War) at the Contemporary Culture Center of Barcelona. It was an amazing exhibition, both at the content and form levels (you have until the 26th of this month to see it, don't miss it!)
Of all the data I was faced with, a simple fact particularly striked me: the main difference between the latest wars and the "traditional" wars is that the number of civil deaths is now much greater than the number of deaths of soldiers. Wars are now suffered mainly by those who don't fight them, quoting a text from the exhibition.

Old writing

I've been just re-reading the literary stuff I've been writing for the last several years. I've started a couple of novels and several short stories. The stuff just doesn't look as what I would write now, even what I wrote last year. I suppose it means I don't have a clear style yet, or maybe that I just start random things without thinking much about it. I am afraid my life is a bit like this also, and I am entering a period in life when I am seriouly thinking about where I am going, or at least making the effort to think about it. But I don't really arrive at any conclusions. The most clear effect, though, is that I don't dare to start anything big. I don't dare to sit down and start writing my PhD project, because I'm not quite sure about the PhD I'm taking. I don't dare to start as a freelance web designer, because maybe that's not for me. Maybe now, but not in ten years time. And the same with any other ideas that ramble down my mind. Maybe this is what thinking about one's life is. (this is the natural end of this post, but I'll keep writing something else, trying to get my unconscious part out. you're free to stop reading here, furthremore, I strongly recommend it)
So you kept reading, and I kept writing. See? I am even lazy to make something good out of this post. Maybe something big is not for me. Maybe I am too old and too afraid of life to start thinking it all over again. Maybe I am ok like this, and I resist to accept it. I don't know. I told you it was not worth to keep reading.

Hypertext

Today I went to a conference by Ted Nelson, the creator of the original project of hypertext, also known as Project Xanadu. The man was quite cool (he started the conference by singing republican songs from the Spanish Civil war, and eventually almost cried) but frankly speaking, I didn't understand what he was trying to explain. Appartently, the web is just an infantile and quite simplistic version of what hypertext really is about. I will think about it.

Network society

Exxonsecrets.org is an excellent website that exposes the connections between the giant oil company Exxon and the funding of organizations that challenge global warming. The website's interaction system (done with Flash) is amazing, as well as the loads of information you can find. You will be able to pick up from a database of hundreds of people and organizations, and start building connections between them. A truly interesting project funded by Greenpeace, materialising the metaphore of the network society we live in.

Carlinhos and Bebo

I am just back from a concert by Carlinhos Brown and Bebo Valdés. It was a pity because you could hardly hear Bebo's piano, but appart from that I had some fun trying to dance brazilian music. They say you can't help moving when you listen to it... can you, Bernie?

Template

I've done some changes to the template, so it should look OK with Firefox now. I've found out that I've you mistakenly write an extra "}" in the stylesheet, Firefox will not interpret the styles correctly. Internet Explorer does. Which one is better? Talking about styles, the blog definitely needs a facial wash... don't you think it looks too blue?

Kerry way ahead

A new poll shows Kerry leading, 46 percent to 20 percent, marking an incredible turnaround from the latest polls, which have Bush up by between 7 and 11 points.
PS There's something fishy about this post, I know. Find out yourself.

Quotes from my readers

I've been re-reading my blog (one of the best things of keeping a blog is being able to re-read it) and found two quotes from my readers lost among the comments. I should keep another blog with the comments. Here are the quotes:
"Everyone has to make himself, otherwise you are lost" by Choche.
"Luck is irrelevant to live life" by Joaquin.

Nothing better?

Now it turns out that the New York Times has published a letter where Bush Jr was accused of disobeying some orders while at the army. But the story does not end here. The story is that a bunch of geek bloggers have discovered that this letter is a hoax, and that it was actually written with Microsoft Word. They printed the same letter with Word and, alas!, it matched perfectly the one of the New York Times. An explanation of the whole process of letter matching can be found here. Really, is it that people have nothing better to do? Who cares about Bush and the army, when the guy actually started an illegal war? I don't really understand what kind of games are we playing lately.

Truth?

I was going to download a piece of software. Before starting the download, I had to choose one my operating system. My option was this one:
"Windows installer (If you don't know what you want, you probably want this)."
I felt sort of insulted by the comment, but I guess it's the truth.
Goodnight, the fruitman is going to get a well deserved, long sleep.

No to Edinburgh

I had been preselected for a three-year, full PhD scholarship at Napier University in Edinburgh. Finally, after a lot of thinking, I said I wouldn't go. I hope it was for the best. I think so, at least.

Ianwalk

I just wrote about Ian and his trip from Argentina southern to Alaska on foot. He's done Argentina so far, a year walking. The site's really worth checking. Here are a few words from the homepage:
"My destination? Alaska. That's a physical goal, and it'll happen. I've found another, a better destination: being who I am at any given moment, in any given place, with any given person"
You can also find the answers to the fourth questions he's been asked more often so far:
"Why in hell would you want to do that?"
"Why don't you just drive, dude?"
"You're gonna die, man!"
"Is there a cause? You gotta have a cause
And so from the textlinks you get "In hell, just drive, die, you gotta have a cause". Nice sentence (I insist, this blog is experimenting with a circular, postmodernist attempt to metaliterature)

Travelling man

Ktur (only in Spanish) is making his way around South America, where he met his friend Ian (who once had dinner at my place, and said it looked quite smart to be a students' flat... he was quite embarrassed when I answered it was my mom's place). Ian is trying to travel from the southest of South America to the northest of North America on foot. Yes, on foot, many thousand kilometers. Commenting on Ian, Ktur believes that to live life as intensely as possible, you should walk it on foot. Interesting thought that I wanted to share with you, my dear readers (Ktur included, so this blog starts experimenting with circular, postmodernist attempts to self-deconstructing metaliterature inspired by the nietzchean concept of the eternal repetition of the soul)

Perino

I am thinking of baptising my computer, following the tradition joaquin has of naming things. Options are:
1) Perino: that's my two italian flatmates in London used to call me, a sweet but rather melancholic name to me, since I will remember London each time I read perino.
2) FruitPC: I think I reserve this name for when I have a Mac - FruitMac is so much cooler.
3) Mr. Bancroft: a rather aristochratic name, with berkelenian connotations.
4) CAS: from Ctrl Alt Sup, the combination of keys to restart Windows with an spanish keyboard.
5) Felangi: I like the exotic flair of that name.
6) Byteman: a variation of fruitman, maybe too geek to be good.
Anyway, I think I suddenly lost my inspiration after the second name. I just hope naming my kids will be easier.

Thanks again, Oscar

I think this sentence is going to be my motto for the next few years, at least until I finally achieve that independence of the soul that I so badly need. I will also make my beloved mother and father learn it by heart, word by word, sound by sound, letter by letter.
The sentence had to be from Oscar Wilde, of course:
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes"

Fear

Ok, I think the system's up and running again. However, I can't help being afraid, afraid that it will sooner or later crash. I guess it will be some months since I trust you again, dear winxp.

Result of trying to install Linux

3 hours of my friday
5 hours of my saturday

Free

Not without sadness, I'm installing Windows all the way over again. I installed Linux, played with it for a while, and then decided to install my wireless internet connection. After downloading the drivers from another computer, I found out that I need an masters of science on Linux just to be able to set up the thing. I asked Choche for help, but there was nothing he could do. Let's see whether Windows preserved some of the Linux, because I just partitioned the hard disk so many times I don't know anything anymore. Ok, no more geek posts for a month.

To good to be true

The burning failed. Start again, fruitman, and be patient. For pacience is the medicine for a happy life.

Last CD

Ok, last CD burning already... just 10 mins to go, and I will format the whole thing... Sorry for the boring follow up of the events, but this is my life today at 4:50 am. I wonder how many people are making love right now, just as I finish this post.

You should be able to copy-paste time

Yes, that's exactly what I think now. It's 4:29am, and I am so happy copying things from my HD to CDs, reviewing my old short-stories, surfing the net and just being solitary, but not lonely. However, I'm going out to have lunch with my granpa tomorrow, so I should think of going to bed right now. Then, after lunch, I will have some 3 hours I really won't be doing anything at all... so why cannot I copy-paste those hours to give me more time to enjoy now? Ah, we need an Einstein, but with an engineering degree. I'm sure he (ok, also she :) would make it possible.

Cleaning up

Yes, that's what I'm doing with my PC, cleaning up... and transferring all the files to CDs... man, so painful it is!
After that, I plan to install Linux and free my computer from the blue screen, now appearing to me around 10 times a day, seriously.
PS Though I think the best thing would be to buy a brand new Mac... I was at A's house today, saw hers, and couldn't help but salivating. It's not that it's a great interface or ease of use, but man, it's so good to be able to work without crashing the operating system whenever you want to burn a CD, work with dreamweaver and check out some webpages...

Reply to the misterious MSN gay guy

So I replied to him... "I think I am not"
Then he signed out. After four hours, though, when I had just came back from lunch, the guy attacked back with a "Why do you think you're not?" (I wonder whether he needed four hours to figure out the reply)
I replied with a rather obvious sentence, and then asked him how he had found my email address.

Auto-destructive art found its way...

When is a bag of rubbish not a bag of rubbish? When it's an integral piece of a high-profile exhibition at one of London's most famous galleries.
Sadly, though, the distinction was lost on a cleaner at Tate Britain who chanced on the bag - part of an installation by Gustav Metzger called Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art - and promptly threw it out.
Read the whole piece at The Guardian

Intermission

Today, a guy got into my MSN messenger's contacts list and asked me whether I'm gay. It was 9:06am, I had just arrived in the office and turned on the computer.

Naked Blues

Yesterday, I learnt that walking naked around Barcelona (including public buildings) is a right we the citizens have. It's legal.