O Crominho do Técnico

In Portugal, the opposing parties prefer to let the current government die slowly and painfully (in portuguese) than try to dissolve it and put a new and (hopefully) better one in place. This decision represents the current politics in Portugal: It’s a country where politicians care more about themselves instead of their country.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the people running the country use it for personal advantage instead of working for the country. We are no better than a third world country. In fact, we are inferior because those have far less education than we have. For how long I do not know.

Until the iPhone arrived in 2007, software developers didn’t really care much about mobile applications. Sure, there were some, but the mobile computer in a pocket wasn’t a reality. With the arrival of the iPhone, the way users interacted with an application were fundamentally different, still tied to the mouse and keyboard paradigm. Even on a phone, all interaction was keyboard based.

After the iPhone debuted, old and new developers specialized in making iPhone apps while some still continued to do Java based apps for the now ancient smart phones (eeeck!). So, as far as mobile went, you either did Java or you did iPhone. Fast forward some years and with today’s news of Windows mobile, we have multiple arenas: iPhone, Android, Windows mobile, Java, Symbian and MeeGo. There are now more platforms than we have in desktop: Windows, OS X and *nix.

It’s hard enough to have programs made for the three major desktops platforms, let alone multiple mobile platforms that are evolving at an insane pace. Moreover, Android alone already has multiple versions out, with different capabilities. I wonder how this will affect development of high quality mobile software. First and foremost, most software houses will focus on one platform and test the waters. Then, they will use their resources to port the applications to other platforms instead of improving and spending time on developing new concepts.

I love options as much as any nerd, but maybe there can be such as thing as too many options. Today I wondered about all this when I posed myself the question: If I have a great idea for a mobile app, which platform should I choose ?

In what critics are calling “musicblogocide 2010″, Google has deleted at least six popular music blogs that it claims violated copyright law. These sites, hosted by Google’s Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites – and years of archives – were wiped from the internet.

Shame on you Google. Follow this on twitter. Be smart, host yourself and do regular backups. Blogger is now dead for a big part of the blogosphere.

This attitude towards testing plays into everything that – educationally speaking – makes Americans feel embarrassed about themselves. On first hearing Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn, the usual response of a young American is not to swoon, weep or ponder whether beauty is really truth, and truth beauty. It is to ask: “Will that be on the test?”

How many of my fellow Portuguese readers throughout their 5 years of college asked this same question: Will that be on the test?

A solo o senhor é fenomenal. Um cheiro do que ele tocou:

Mais impressões daqui a uns dias.

The American Scholar has an article by William Zinsser’s on how to write English as a second language.

You have no idea of how blessed you are if you stumble upon this article early in your writing career.

Good luck to you all indeed.

According to Tim Brady, only his type of creativity is creativity, hence, he postulates: “For creative people, this device is nothing.“

I love when people believe only their type of creativity is really being creative. It’s like when scientists only believe what they study is relevant and only that will have a significant impact in the world. We normally label those as clueless grad students. This behavior is more prominent before they have had their initial failures.

has started in full swing (gizmodo)!

And yes, some of these things are true. Also true is that we don’t have to buy it. Developers can make apps for other systems, that are more open (Believe me, it’s all going to be about what apps will make it a must have). That is all great if you believe that linux is a great system and you can simply quickly download an app for any linux distribution out there without any trouble. That you can just use linux right out of the box, etc.

Yes, Apple is getting more closed over time, somewhat too greedy. Yes, I think the iPad will need to be more open. Eventually, it will be, one way or the other: Jail-brake or Apple will offer a more advanced model with more options. I mean, they must have seen what has just happened to the Kindle.

That said, people can buy non-mac hardware and run OS X on it, but the numbers have shown people don’t care about it: They’d just rather buy it off Apple and not worry about it. And this is the crux of the issue: people want to buy and not worry about it. It’s a freakin’ computer, a tool, it’s not a project.

Qingqing Wang‘s Seven taboos when socializing with graduate students:

1. Don’t ask a grad student how his research goes. This is rude and feeling-hurting.
2. Don’t ask a grad student when he will graduate. This is rude and feeling-hurting
3. Don’t ask a grad student whether he is dating someone, when he will get married. This is rude and feeling-hurting
4. Don’t ask a grad student how he spends his weekend. This is rude and feeling-hurting
5. Don’t ask a grad student what he plans to do in the future, how his job-hunting is going. This is rude and feeling-hurting
6. Don’t ask a grad student how much money he can get every year. This is rude and feeling-hurting
7. Don’t ask a grad student when he gets up and goes to sleep everyday. This is rude and feeling-hurting

There’s a feeling of sheer brilliance that you get in Keith Jarrett’s live performances and a rare display of sobriety that has been recently epitomized by Brad Mehldau. Get it here.