If I understood correctly they have put an Oil Tank Ship in the middle of the exit of Maracaibo Lake... No oil can get out...

On a funny note the ship has the name of Pilin León, one of the many venezuelan Miss World... I used to know her in my university years.

8:01:19 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

There has been a lot of criticism to the Mac OS X Finder lately. I do not understand the criticism. I used the Mac OS 9 Finder and it was fine. But I also like the new Finder. It isn't perfect but it certainly is an improvement over teh old one. I move files back and forth between drives and networked machines and I do not see the limitations people ramble about... Yes, they changed one command (cmmd-N) because it was inconsistent and that created problems for us... For about five minutes!... Jesus!

All the other arguments come down to: I really prefer how it used to work. I'll address one directly...

In the classic Finder, there is no abstraction between the actual file system and the view of the file system presented on screen. A folder is either open or closed. If it is open, it is represented on screen in its own window. The size, position, and viewing options for an open folder[base ']s window are always remembered, and are unrelated to the size, position, and viewing options of parent, sibling, or child folders.

Guys, it's just a metaphor, it is not reality. Furthermore, we have been using that metaphor for almost twenty years. Despite its usefulness it also has it's limitations. Maintaining the metaphor would imply not moving forward with the interface design. Column view, for example, can't be implemented without violating that metaphor. We have evolved enough that we can handle moving out of the metaphor and learning a couple of new tricks.

Anyone with problems with the new Finder has to do this experiment (I did) put two groups of novice computer users to use the old Finder and the new Finder. I like to use old people because they explain their experiences better, but never mind. Make them find out how essential tasks are done (after a brief, general, introduction to files, folders, mouse movement, etc). Constantly, the new Finder comes out on top. It is easier to use, except if you know Mac OS 9...

The argument that Apple has to cater to this group, which clearly isn't enough to sustain it, is simply absurd. Apple would do better conquering a small percent of windows users and a small percent of novice users... Old Mac users are pretty much stuck... Aren't they?

Clearly, the old Mac OS advantages weren't enough to increase Apple market share and they think increasing it is important... So, what should Apple do? Get stuck with you guys or move forward with the rest of us? The best thing is you're all going to use Mac OS X... What is your threat? Why should Apple listen to your complaints?

Grow up, guys!

4:08:58 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Refrigerators To Cool With Sound (Cool!) [Slashdot]

So if you listen to crummy music your refrigerator won't work...

2:46:13 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Amazon, CDNow make it official. Media giant Bertelsmann will let Amazon handle inventory, fulfillment and other services for its online record store. [CNET News.com]

So, where is Amazon going? Can you say M-O-N-O-P-O-L-Y?

12:34:26 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Apple offers IP over FireWire preview release [MacCentral]

Hmmm! Journaling, RAID, and IP over Firewire... anyone has any doubts where Apple is running to with all these technologies? Learn to add, guys!

11:29:22 AM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Merchants of Cool supplemental. PBS's companion site for its Frontline: Merchants of Cool program is brilliant. It's full of interviews, supplemental footage, documentation about media conglomeration, and more resources that flesh ou the story of the trendmakers who find our best ideas, repackage them, and sell them back to us.
(Thanks, Gatfishing!) [Boing Boing Blog]

The program itself is really cool too.

11:16:00 AM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []   

Today there are going to be a lot of marches... Most of them at 11 am. The march in Caracas will start in the same place where the National Guard gassed people just to retire to gassed again in order to... Oh, well, I don't know. A friend suggested a change instead of "El Honor ni se Divisa" put "El Honor es en Divisas" which indicates the corrupt nature of this group of the National Guard that has forgotten the true meaning of their motto ("El Honor es mi Divisa"). Now they have no respect, even for themselves...

A lot of people, some from the National Guard, adscribe this stupid autodestruction to a plan by Chávez. Napoleón Bonaparte said Never adscribe to bad faith what can easily be explained by incompetence.

I have a problem with the marches today. It looks to much like April. The lack of planning and the bad timing of these measures are going to be a terrible blow for the opposition. But you have to admit that the government is doing everything within their power to make the opposition look good.

Pray for peace and hope we learn our lesson... We have to be more patient and understand who our real leaders are. Desperation is a bad adviser...

10:16:59 AM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []