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Monday, February 25, 2002 |
The Venezuelan political situation is about to explode. The current persistent rumor is that
President Chavez will announce a raise in gasoline prices tomorrow and then the government fascist forces will stage
riots so that he can declare a national state of emergency and void all our, precariously fragile, rights
Traditionally gasoline prices in Venezuela have been low, near cost or subsidize by the government.
Currently gasoline prices for unleaded gas are less than .24$ per gallon! When prices are raised there are
protests and, sometimes, riots. In 1989 there were several deaths in national riots after the government
raised prices.
So, the story would be credible, the government won't get more support but they will be able to crush
protests and eliminate the opposition. What might happen next is anyone guess. From a right wing corrupt dictatorship
to the Colombian guerrilla getting a foothold in Venezuelan soil and a totalitarian government in Caracas
robing us of what little we have left. I am pretty sure there will be blood shed.
I am worry about my family, especially about my two six year old kids...
10:32:08 PM 
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 Chris Locke: "Dvorak's initially promising career writing for Datamation back in the 1900's was sadly cut short by his fondness for shooting heroin and circle jerks with young boys, spinning and chanting and hugging, all naked."  [Scripting News]
8:37:50 PM
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Dvorak proves one thing. The old tech press, and particularly key individuals that can't adapt, have outlived their relevance. Technology isn't just 1 and 0's anymore. It has gone mainstream and has culturual impact. I don't agree with all of the Cluetrain manifesto, but a lot of makes sense (ever read a corporate press release?? -- imagine the disconnect when that press release isn't read by 100 journalists but is read by 3 m potential buyers of the product). Time to retire the pen Dvorak. Get a blog and enjoy your sunset years. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
8:36:41 PM
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Jack Valenti has it all wrong. People aren't downloading full movies. What they are downloading are clips and sex (.Movie clips are like free promos. And xxx videos are another thing entirely. Does Jack worry about the sex industry? From what I hear they are making money hand over fist). Frankly, it is too much time and work to download a movie that plays at extremely low quality when a DVD that can play 480i costs $3.50 at Blockbuster. Further, the PC isn't where people watch full length films. The truth is that Jack didn't do anything other that look at a list of films (mostly low rez, small format clips -- but he never saw one) that were being downloaded. What a crock.
>>>According to the Boston-based consulting firm Viant, some 350,000-plus films are being downloaded illegally every day.<<< All they did is charge you $350 k to create this foolish study. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
8:35:43 PM
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John C. Dvorak: The Cluelesstrain Manifesto
Dvorak admits he doesn't get the simplest arguments...finally! The bad news is that weblogs are getting the same treatment as Mac users: we are a cult, we do weblogs because we don't think for ourselves, we are just followers, we do not critize each other. Of course, this is the argument of a person who is most threatened by weblogs. An out of touch journalist in a mainstream publication.
12:36:06 PM
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Google. Legal sharks are running an ad on the Segway search term. They promise serious bodily harm if you ride a Segway. This is a new low for the legal profession. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
Is this really a new low? I think it is standard sleazy "lawyerese".
Why does New Jersey have the most polution and California the most lawyers? New Jersey got first pick.
10:57:48 AM
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Formula 1 racing starts this weekend in Melbourne, Australia. Ferrari will use last year car. I'll write a comment after every race from the persepctive of a Ferrari Fan, of course. If you want objectivity, and up to the minute race updates go to F1 Live.
8:40:35 AM
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After reading Dictionary.com Word of the Day (tyro) and doing some minimal soul searching, I've decided to change the name of this weblog. Here are the relevant definitions:
Tyro Ty"ro, n.; pl. Tyros. [L. tiro a newlylevied soldier, a
beginner.]
A beginner in learning; one who is in the rudiments of any
branch of study; a person imperfectly acquainted with a
subject; a novice. Maniac Ma"ni*ac, a. [F. maniaque. See Mania.]
Raving with madness; raging with disordered intellect;
affected with mania; mad.
8:28:24 AM
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Finally, a Photoshop for OS X. Adobe's latest photo-editing application offers modest advances over its previous edition, but its real value is that it works with the new Macs. By Farhad Manjoo. [Wired News]Several new features appear in Photoshop 7.0, but after watching Connor's demo and playing around with the beta version, it's clear that many of the additions, while they may be cool, are relatively minor tweaks. Photo finishers will find a few new editing tools, a redesigned palette of brushes, a new "painting engine" and a "file browser" that makes managing large groups of pictures simpler than previous versions of the software.
But for many Photoshop users, especially those not on a Mac OS X, this release doesn't seem to be a must-have.
Most reviews of Photoshop 7.0 are like this one. The main feature seems to be that it works on Mac OS X. They don't even mention XP!
This means one of two things: either Mac OS X is really caching on or Photoshop 7.0 new features are not that big a deal... I bet is the latter. This can be checked by looking at how many Windows upgrades Adobe sells.
Bold Prediction: In the next round of upgrades of mayor apps for Mac OS X you are going to see companies using the leverage of the OS to produce wonderful new applications. For now they've just discover a cash cow: do a version for the new OS and Mac users will upgrade.
7:57:44 AM
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© Copyleft 2005 Alfredo Octavio.
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Diccionario RAE (Click Here)