Feng Office proudly presents the latest version of OpenGoo: version 1.4.

Hope you like it.

One of these days this blog will come back. With a vengeance!

Trying to find something that would help me explain the team at OpenGoo what we should strive for, in order to deliver a top-notch product for version 1.0, I came across:

this link

Dude, now I know why it is so hard to make good software.

Another gem of the British humor. So accurate, funny, and current (it was broadcast on 2007!), this video had to be revived by the Internet to help explain the current financial crisis.

It features John Fortune and John Bird at an episode of the British TV South Bank Show.

Thanks to my friend Fabián for e-mailing the link (actually he sent this one with spanish subtitles).

When I studied Engineering at the University, gold plating - the practice of getting more and more details into your software -, was regarded as a bad software engineering practice. I argue that has now been reverted completely.

Today, most software packages are becoming commodities. All text editors edit text. All ERP systems do ERP. The only thing that differentiates a product from another is the gold plating. We now have many options of tools for aiding us at our work. And with prices becoming less of an issue, it all comes down to the cool factors to drive the choice.

Note 1 - Not on Wikipedia

Gold plating is now necessary. Might that be the reason why, when I went directly to Wikipedia for linking to the Gold_plating_(software) definition, the software part was just defined at the disambiguation page? Weird eh? …Well, for a geek it is.

Note 2 - Another cool geek view

Googlin for gold plating brought my attention - once again - to the beautiful Jeff Atwood’s Coding Horror Blog and, particularly, to these two excellent posts:

• Gold Plating
• The Ultimate Software Gold Plating

So now, thanks to gold plating, Coding Horror is part of this geek’s blog roll.

Having three ‘jobs’ is too much. Way too much. It is stressful, so I am stressed.

Last year, the blog was like a part-time job for me. Taking care of it on an almost daily basis was a very enlightening experience. It also coincided with a period of my life of introspection; a period for figuring out what I wanted to do with my professional life.

But last year I did not make much money. I made enough to sustaing a -more than decent- living, but my savings took a bit of a drop. And one thing the blog helped me discover was: I make a lousy journalist. Very lousy.

This year I had to focus on my ‘real’ jobs. The ones where I do what I know how to do. So I am full time into software again, and my next posts will be about the software I am helping build, and the activities I get involved to help further develop on of the top industries of my country and the world. And so, the blog is now officially a hobby.

After a long voting period, readers have favoured CK and Fruit of the Loom as their preferred underwear.

I was surprised by the few votes GAP received. I really like the ones I bought a year ago.

Anyway, by the time I went shopping to Walmart, Fruit of the Loom (FotL) was still winning. Plus, FotL is probably much less expensive than CK. So I got me some FotL, which I proudly present at the following picture:

There I am, with my “calsones” at JC’s, Vista, CA. Good thing I uploaded this picture before my notebook was stolen… it is one of the few pictures of my California trip that survived my personal OLPC project.

Tomorrow, Feburary the 14th, is MY BIRTHDAY. And then, in some parts of the world, it’s Valentine’s day. If you are one of the blog readers currently in Uruguay, you are all invited to the party!!! That’s right! All three of you!

It will be at Moove-IT offices, at Juan Spikerman 2324. 9:30 PM. Pizza and beers on the house!

The last day of the year and here I am, trying to get some work done; alone at the office, and with all the bandwidth for me. So in between downloads of the summer music for my ipod, and sporadic chats with other pathetic friends connected today, the client proposal is almost done.

So much work was left behind because of the OpenCoffee MVD Show (a big success by the way), that I never found time to write the post about it here. And this isn’t it either. This post is to share the feeling of accomplishment and happiness that comes from taking some time to review this past year; regarding the big professional changes that took place in my life.

In summary I wanted to write that, as many say and suspect, taking control of your business, embark in a startup, and take the risks of entrepreneurship in general is very rewarding, despite sacrifices and harder work.

2007 was the turning point for me. Even though Moove-IT is now over two years old, just this year I came to work full time for myself. The projects involved, the professional challenge and, specially, all the new people met; are what made 2007 and awesome year.

We have set many goals for our company (Moove-IT), and I have done the same for myself. So 2008 will be a hard working year around here. But I’ll be in touch and hope to hear from you, my readers and my friends. Next three weeks will find me in La Aguada, Rocha, so very little witting is guaranteed, but lots of fun. You are all invited to come!

Happy 2008 for all!

Internet is amazing. I learned about the deployment of the first OLPC batch here in Uruguay through Techmeme->Ivan Krstić’s blog. And I live here!

Ivan’s article is inspirational and exciting. I absolutely believe in the OLPC program, and will do what it is at my reach to support it. There are lots of good people here that I know will join in volunteering to help as the program advances.

On the other hand - and I know this level of honesty is dangerous - part of me wanted to title this article “I gave a Laptop to a child before you!” and start with another tale I wanted to share this week: a very young boy (8 years old according to police suspicions), broke into my apartment last Wednesday night (while Carolina and me were sleeping) stealing cash and my brand new Sony Vaio. Of course I risk being accused of being a bitter-sarcastic-smart ass geek (hey, maybe you are right!) but my feelings remain.

So what’s my point? Of course: giving a Laptop to every child will not solve our bigger social problems (half our children will still be poor tomorrow) but I believe that it is an excellent tool for increasing their future opportunities. So, while I would like to have all my geek friends helping with the technical aspects of the Ceibal/OLPC project, lets take the opportunity to try and share more than our technical knowledge: lets try and convince these children of the benefits of education, work, honesty and entrepreneurship. How? With our examples, our stories, and our REAL help.

A culture of begging and stealing is gaining a strong hold in our society. I will not argue this fact with anyone: denying it implies you either have not been to Uruguay in the last 80 years, or you are a politician at government with some odd stakes.

Lets fight this reality above all, by any means, at every chance we get! The Ceibal/OLPC project is a good opportunity. Lets use it well my friends!

I will help as many kids I can at their school, but will still make them clear that I will not forgive and will gladly help in the detention and punishment of whoever breaks into my house and steals my hard earned 800 dollars laptop and stuff. These are both promises.