If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

Reiser was guilty after all

2008-07-19T14:10:55Z

I know it is old news, but I did not have time to blog lately. This actually broke my heart.

Hans Reiser Leads Police to Nina's Body: last month Reiser was attempting to negotiate a deal for a 15-to-life sentence instead of 25-to-life if he produced his wife’s body.

She was identified through dental records, clothing and jewelry, authorities said. Reiser knew exactly where the body was, his lawyer said.

I have no time to investigate this any further, but I suspect that the abuse from Reiser towards Debian was very close to the time of their divorce.

RIP, Nina.

Quote of the day: your brain is like dpkg

2008-07-19T13:59:42Z

From basaburu: “La cosa es que tienes, por decirlo de alguna forma, dependencias incumplidas y paquetes rotos y dpkg no te puede ayudar” which roughly translates to “Having a mental illness is like having unmet dependencies and broken packages and dpkg cannot help you, so to say”.
And he is so right.

Strange Findings

2008-06-12T19:05:35Z

Strange Findings
Originally uploaded by Amayita.

I was walking down my street, minding my own bussiness when I found these shoes, abandoned on the sidewalk, waiting for her owner to come back.

Booked!

2008-06-11T21:41:21Z

Mr Levsen and Mrs Rodrigo will land in EZE on Wed, July 30th, flight IB6845 (Iberia) at 19:40.

We are now just about to celebrate the rise in oil prices and ~~our~~ my procastinating in booking (2428.72 EUR in total) with a cold Mahou beer. But I am thankful I didn’t need to ask for sponsorship this year.

See you down there!

42

2008-06-05T20:14:16Z

What was the question again? 42 is just the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Email zen

2008-06-05T20:12:44Z

You know you have reached email zen when your domain is down for a week, maybe because your dns is down, you don’t give a flying fuck, and are in no hurry to fix it. Bonus points if you don’t get automatically unsubscribed from any mailing lists.

Of life and vermin

2008-05-09T16:24:09Z

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. -- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

You know you've had enough to drink when...

2008-04-24T20:57:23Z

You know you’ve had enough to drink when... you have been using mutt and vim with capslock on for half an hour and have even managed, quite confused though.
Heh.

You people break my heart

2008-04-18T20:22:56Z

Some come, others kind of go.

I warmly welcome the new 19 developers (great female ratio there!) and humbly ask the rest of us to support the new blood carriers. If they made it through this, they are surely worthy of our cause and will probably accomplish a lot more if us, the old farts, make it easier for the ones to come in the future.

Where do I join the Debian elderly club?

The absurd farce

2008-04-15T10:35:40Z

It happens that when I get burnt out by Debian (I might blog about that later, but then I just might not) I am forced to face the real world just to learn that Debian was not so bad to begin with. Oh, the irony! I need to smoke more so that I spend less time involved in this crap nobody can change. It is hard enough to change Debian, I don't even want to think about the rest.

If you want to understand the world crisis you are living in...

Watch Money as Debt, an animated documentary by Paul Grignon, that will make you want to cry (torrent here)

Then read Why the US is collapsing by Rick Falkvinge, the leader of the Swedish Pirate Party.

I can also suggest Maxed Out on Credit, an independent documentary that chronicles abusive practices in the credit card industry (torrent here)

The end of Suburbia on peak oil and its implications on the suburban lifestyle, which I have recommended before (torrent here)

For a nice piece of "fiction" turn to Fast Food Nation. There's shit in your meat, but that's ok as long as you cook it! (torrent here)

If you can read Spanish, there's a great article about the housing bubble, the credit crunch and how they affect you (on top of not being able to access decent housing at prices that have anything to do with your earnings), even if you don't live in the USA or Madrid ;) The article was written by Leopoldo Abadía, although I first saw it on Nacho Giral's blog: Explicación a la crisis financiera que nos azota

Release Goal goal-recommends: Final help needed

2008-03-31T10:43:43Z

Slow sunday afternoon? Choose a release goal and work on it!

Yesterday I focused on the goal-recommends issue: No unmet recommends relations inside main. I worked from 18:00 pm to 2:00am, aprox, and 32 bugs were closed.

16 Non Maintainer Uploads, closing 21 bugs:
* delo (Closes: #378221, #414389, #416161, #452953)
* gpib (Closes: #430998)
* php-net-smtp (Closes: #369273)
* rpc2 (Closes: #377829) (NMU Overriden by maintainer)
* rvm (Closes: #377410) (NMU Overriden by maintainer)
* smooth-themes (Closes: #379195)
* xmltex (Closes: #429564)
* acpitool (Closes: #436637)
* asciidoc (Closes: #452470)
* chasen (Closes: #363196, #452474)
* cl-screen-sbcl (Closes: #436641, #460444)
* cpufreqd (Closes: #436647)
* denemo (Closes: #439929)
* lacheck (Closes: #448911)
* sablevm (Closes: #346071)
* ddcontrol-db (Closes: #436649)

Filed for removal, will close 3 bugs:
* digikamimageplugins-doc (Closes: #448904)
* free-java-sdk (Closes: #429306, #401492)
* php4-apd Filed for removal by KiBi (Closes: #418319)

Orphaning uploads, closing 2 bugs:
* xcin2.3 (Closes: #276885)
* gnochm (Closes: #429304)

Packages only present in oldstable, closing 4 bugs:
* eagle-usb-utils (Closes: #448905)
* zd1211 (Closes: #378725)
* python-pysnmp4 (Closes: #377075)
* lessdisks-terminal (Closes: #361939)

Bugs marked fixed but never properly closed, closing 2 bugs:
* araneida (Closes: #436638)
* gtk2-engines-murrine (Closes: #430999)

That leaves a total of 2 bugs remaining to finish the release goal:
* #436650: syslinux: Please build (at least a subset of) syslinux for all arches
* #448890: bioperl: recommends packages not in main (pending, serious)

These don't seem trivial to fix, anyone dares to step in?

(Updated: Monday, March 31 2008 17:50)

Debian-Women-es @Fosdem 2008

2008-03-05T19:38:02Z

Debian-Women-es @Fosdem 2008
Originally uploaded by Amayita.

Fosdem 2008, a little gathering for the Debian-Women Spanish chapter. There were probably more Debian related women from Spain than men this year. The world upside down!

On other news, my mum was diagnosed skin cancer today. Life sucks. Hard.

Where is Wally?

2008-02-21T16:04:42Z

Can you find Holger in this pic?

And BTW, I am going to Fosdem.

Edit: If you don't understand this post's title, find out about Wally

Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen

2008-02-12T13:04:55Z

Thank you for introducing me to Hildegard Knef and Amy Winehouse. You know who you are. Specially for the Extrabreit version of Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen (It shall rain red roses for me). It takes me to the verge of tears.

Héctor's Birth Day

2008-01-26T23:10:47Z

Today is Héctor’s birthday. We celebrated with his family and a couple of close friends. He cooked a wonderful meal for us (he is a great cook) and we had a very nice afternoon, despite having a flu (again!) and a very runny nose. I am at this very moment preparing a sponsored upload for Carlos, one of the close friends who attended. He will become an excellent Debian contributor some day.

I got Héctor a couple of cookbooks for his birthday, but much to my surprise I received a brand new server from him (late Xmas present, but I am to blame for the delay). I can now get rid of this damn noisy and slow thing that sits under my desk, aka ænima. This has been a faithful server for many years and I think it deserves to be donated to the local hacklab, as I believe it can still be of use.

I hope I can put all this CPU power to good use in my Debian QA work (which I am slowly coming back to).

Héctor has been my best friend for almost 10 years. We also are co-workers at soitu.es now. He was the one who made me believe that I could contribute to Debian and that I should apply to become a Developer (although Santiago Vila was actually the first one to spot me). He was the one I run to when I felt like ~~dying~~ shit after my “divorce”. He is still the one I run to most of the time when I need support or advice, and he has this wonderful way of making me feel safe in this scary world. Even though we naturally don’t agree on a lot of stuff, he does his best to respect my eccentricities, and I always carefully listen to what he has to say. I am very lucky to be his friend. May this friendship last many, many more years. Héctor, keep rocking!

Back to life, back to blogging

2008-01-08T00:33:38Z

Since September 19th I have been mostly offline and unreachable. This was due to having started a new job in a wonderful new project: soitu.es, an online newspaper with a strong focus on Citizen Journalism: citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,” I must mention the master mind behind this all: Gumersindo Lafuente, one very well known journalist in Spain. On the other hand, working with Raúl Rivero, not the Cuban poet but the technical soul of the project, is something I would pay for, and I get actually paid to learn from him! Too bad he doesn’t digg Debian :)

The site was finally launched during Xmas, and we are all less busy, so despite having what I call “the weekend flu” (that only affects me during the weekends, but I never feel so bad that I need to miss work during the week), I am back to normal, If you thought I was quite MIA, keep in mind I was not one of busiest ones at work! Launching such a project takes a toll on everyone, though. I set up a Flick set for my new workplace: Amayita’s Soitu.es Flickr photo Set, in case you are curious. There is also an official Soitu.es Flickr Photo Pool.

Today is a holiday in Spain, due to Día de Reyes, when kids usually get their Xmas presents here. As I am fully recovered from this weekend’s flu (today is Monday after all), I had some spare time and my cats got a nice present too: A DIY scratching post. There is a WTF column in the effing middle of my kitchen, so after some cardboard, a wall stapler, sisal rope and a bit of round and round the column... This pic shows the result:

Two happy cats and a sisal scratching post.

I couldn’t resist filming a video, available on YouTube: This scratching post is now mine! - No! Mine! - I’ll get you!

Still remains - Stone Temple Pilots

2007-12-31T19:06:39Z

Our bed we live, our bed we sleep
Making love and I become you
Flesh is warm with naked feet
Stabbing thorns and you become me
~~Oh, Id beg for you, you know I’ll beg for you~~
Pick a song and sing a yellow nectarine
Take a bath, I’ll drink the water that you leave
If you should die before me
Ask if you can bring a friend
Pick a flower, hold you breath
And drift away...

She holds my hand we share a laugh
Sipping orange blossom breezes
Love is still and sweat remains
A cherished gift, unselfish feelings...
~~Oh, Id beg for you, you know I’ll beg for you~~

Happy Gnu Year, Holgi! You know I’d love to be there with you :*

I want to have your child

2007-12-01T22:17:59Z

I want to have your child

Hermanos...

2007-11-05T13:01:45Z

El general en jefe del ejercito libertador del sur Emiliano Zapata Manifiesto Zapatista en Nagua

Hermanos nosotros nacimos de la noche
en ella vivimos
y moriremos en ella
pero la luz será mañana para los más,
para todos aquellos que hoy lloran la noche,
para quienes se niega el día.
Para todos la luz,
para todos todo.
Para nosotros el dolor y la angustia,
para nosotros la alegria de la rebelión
para nosotros el futuro negado,
Para nosotros la dignidad insurrecta
Para nosotros nada
Nuestra lucha es por hacernos escuchar y el mal gobierno
grita soberbia y tapa con cañones sus oídos,
nuestra lucha es por un trabajo justo y digno y el mal gobierno compra y vende cuerpos y vergüenza,
nuestra lucha es por la vida y el mal gobierno oferta muerte como futuro,
nuestra lucha es por la justicia y el mal gobierno se llena de criminales y asesinos,
nuestra lucha es por la paz y el mal gobierno anuncia guerra y destrucción.
Techo, tierra, trabajo, pan, salud, educación, independencia, democracia, libertad,
estas fueran nuestras demandas en la larga noche de los 500 años,
estas son hoy nuestras exigencias.

Breakfast

2007-06-28T10:53:11Z

There is a topless Argentinian dude in my kitchen making pancakes with dulce de leche for breakfast. Yes, that’s nueces!

I found out!

2007-06-14T18:50:30Z

Now I know what’s a proper way to wear a kilt, tactilewards!

Dear Lazyweb

2007-06-10T17:59:57Z

In case you were wondering, the question is: can you see whether Phil is wearing any underwear under that lovey kilt from where you are seated?

Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State

2007-06-08T09:44:57Z

Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State. Some excerpts, if you don’t want to read the whole thing:

The average shopper at Karstadt, Metro and Lidl is a downright globalization fanatic. He compares price and service and always goes for what’s cheapest. In doing so, he destroys massive numbers of jobs in Europe -- including, eventually, his own.

Nowadays, almost everything money can buy can be produced without the extra ingredient that we call the welfare state.

Indeed, 75 percent of the world’s population has no unemployment benefit. And while this may put workers at a disadvantage, it certainly provides a boost to their product sales. It is the workers alone -- and not the products they produce -- who must bear the risk of illness, poverty and aging. In the West, exactly the opposite is true.

Many who considered the social market economy to be the final stage of history are now being forced to admit they made a colossal error. Capitalism has, thanks to a global labor and finance market, increased its range, while the social safety net has lost ground. The market has gained power, speed and apparently also inevitability. But the social triumph of yesteryear has faded. Indeed, capitalism is going back to its roots.

Walking Around

2007-06-07T21:46:01Z

Update: Aprox. translation

Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.
Sucede que entro en las sastrerías y en los cines
marchito, impenetrable, como un cisne de fieltro
Navegando en un agua de origen y ceniza.

El olor de las peluquerías me hace llorar a gritos.
Sólo quiero un descanso de piedras o de lana,
sólo quiero no ver establecimientos ni jardines,
ni mercaderías, ni anteojos, ni ascensores.

Sucede que me canso de mis pies y mis uñas
y mi pelo y mi sombra.
Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.

Sin embargo sería delicioso
asustar a un notario con un lirio cortado
o dar muerte a una monja con un golpe de oreja.
Sería bello
ir por las calles con un cuchillo verde
y dando gritos hasta morir de frío

No quiero seguir siendo raíz en las tinieblas,
vacilante, extendido, tiritando de sueño,
hacia abajo, en las tapias mojadas de la tierra,
absorbiendo y pensando, comiendo cada día.

No quiero para mí tantas desgracias.
No quiero continuar de raíz y de tumba,
de subterráneo solo, de bodega con muertos
ateridos, muriéndome de pena.

Por eso el día lunes arde como el petróleo
cuando me ve llegar con mi cara de cárcel,
y aúlla en su transcurso como una rueda herida,
y da pasos de sangre caliente hacia la noche.

Y me empuja a ciertos rincones, a ciertas casas húmedas,
a hospitales donde los huesos salen por la ventana,
a ciertas zapaterías con olor a vinagre,
a calles espantosas como grietas.

Hay pájaros de color de azufre y horribles intestinos
colgando de las puertas de las casas que odio,
hay dentaduras olvidadas en una cafetera,
hay espejos
que debieran haber llorado de vergüenza y espanto,
hay paraguas en todas partes, y venenos, y ombligos.
Yo paseo con calma, con ojos, con zapatos,
con furia, con olvido,
paso, cruzo oficinas y tiendas de ortopedia,
y patios donde hay ropas colgadas de un alambre:
calzoncillos, toallas y camisas que lloran
lentas lágrimas sucias.

Pablo Neruda

It's that time of the year again

2007-05-30T23:21:28Z

It’s that time of the year again, and I have this silly smile on my face again: Next Friday I will be landing in Edinburgh, just before Debconf officially starts.

2007 has been a bit difficult so far, but I know Debconf will recharge my batteries and I will, again, get intoxicated with the enthusiasm of my fellow DDs. I always find inspiration, motivation and nice technical challenges during Debconf and anticipation fills my heart with warmth.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the dudes and dudettes again. Hug you in Debconf!