Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Escolar.net » Las profecías de Stiglitz
Joseph Stiglitz, premio Nobel de Economía: “Si una familia no puede pagar sus deudas, se le recomienda que gaste menos para que pueda hacerlo. Pero en una economía nacional, si se recorta el gasto, decae la actividad económica, nadie invierte, disminuye la recaudación fiscal, aumenta el gasto en desempleo y uno termina sin dinero para pagar las deudas”. “Hay muchos experimentos que lo demuestran gracias a Herbert Hoover y el Fondo Monetario Internacional”, explica Stiglitz en una reciente entrevista en el diario británico The Independent. Se refiere a los ‘éxitos’ de las recetas de recorte del déficit que aplicó el FMI en Argentina, en Tailandia o en Indonesia; y a la decisión de aquel presidente estadounidense, Hoover, que con su tijeretazo al gasto público convirtió el crack del 29 en la terrible Gran Depresión.
Conviene escuchar a Stiglitz, ex asesor de Bill Clinton, ex vicepresidente primero del Banco Mundial. Este economista fue casi el único que predijo la tremenda crisis económica que ahora sufrimos, el primero que advirtió del riesgo de un colapso del sistema financiero internacional. También fue él quien avisó, hace ya 20 años, del peligro de revender las hipotecas como títulos de inversión, ese genial invento que estalló con las subprime. Y el Nobel se lo ganó, en el año 2001, con una investigación que demostraba que cierto grado de intervención gubernamental en la economía, ese tabú neoliberal, conseguía mejores resultados para todos que la desregulación total. Como quedó patente en septiembre de 2007, Stiglitz volvía a tener razón.
“Sabemos lo que ocurre”, dice sobre los recortes que están aplicando todos los gobiernos europeos. “Las economías van a debilitarse, se reducirán las inversiones y se producirá una terrible espiral descendente”. Ayer, los países del G-20 se reafirmaron en su compromiso de reducir a la mitad su déficit antes del año 2013. Ojalá Stiglitz se equivoque esta vez.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
"Hackers" at 25 - O'Reilly Radar
"Hackers" at 25
It's been 25 years since "Hackers" was published. Author Steven Levy reflects on the book and the movement.
by Mac Slocum | @macslocum | comments: 3
Steven Levy wrote a book in the mid-1980s that introduced the term "hacker" -- the positive connotation -- to a wide audience. In the ensuing 25 years, that word and its accompanying community have gone through tremendous change. The book itself became a mainstay in tech libraries.
O'Reilly recently released an updated 25th anniversary edition of "Hackers," so I checked in with Levy to discuss the book's development, its influence, and the role hackers continue to play.
Writing "Hackers"
Do you remember the original pitch for "Hackers"?
Steven Levy: I don't remember it, though I can tell you that it didn't wind up being what the book was. I thought I was going to embark on a series of magazine articles.
Soon after I started researching, it seemed like it was going to be a two-part book starting with the Homebrew Computer Club and then the game hackers and that emerging industry. But then I realized that the whole hacker culture started at MIT. That was where I had to go, and it turned out to be a key section of the book.
Of all the stories and profiles in the book, which resonated most with you?
SL: The MIT story was just amazing. I stumbled upon this important history and no one else had chronicled it. It's difficult to overestimate how important that community was to hatching the culture of hacking, and really the culture of computing. It had ripples far beyond the hacker community that went out to the way we all use computers.
I would learn about these people like Richard Greenblatt and Bill Gosper, that no one ever heard of. The way they expressed themselves and the reverberations they created were very influential. They were legends within the walls of MIT.
It's a little bittersweet that the book itself wound up defining them to a larger audience. From a journalistic and psychological perspective, it was interesting to talk to Greenblatt and Gosper. They had mixed feelings about sharing with me. Gosper had the biggest vacillation. He was okay with the book, but he never went to a Hacker Conference. And there's things in the book that were a little embarrassing for Greenblatt, but he was okay. He felt: "Well, that's just journalism. The more important thing is hacking, and if the book is good for hacking, that's all right."
Some of the people who grudgingly talked to me ended up appreciating the book. Marvin Minsky, for example, was a mercurial character. He'd get up and walk away and you didn't know whether the interview was over. I would follow him and keep asking questions. I ran into him at a Science Foo Camp last summer, and he said such nice things about the book. I had never heard these things from him. That was just super for me.
Is there anyone you wish you had included?
SL: I didn't set out to create an exhaustive chronicle of all hackers. Some people have told me I should have included them in the book. But I was following a narrative. Just because someone isn't in the book, doesn't mean they're not important.
The "Hackers" impact and the 25th anniversary edition
How has the definition of "hacker" changed over the last 25 years?
SL: The original term was upbeat. The MIT people adopted it for computer wizards who took systems to the limit. It was a badge of pride, but it became associated with vandals and thieves. There was a lot of consternation in the mid-'70s when the word became synonymous with a destructive element. I never thought that was something to spend a lot of time worrying about, though. The original definition was still lurking there. The movement always went forward, and the people who were inclined to be hackers -- the ones who had the "hacker gene" -- they just kept on.
More recently, the positive version of "hacker" has made a big comeback. I'm happy to see that.
You mentioned a "hacker gene." Is there a connection across hacker generations? Does the book tap into that?
SL: There definitely is. It's been so gratifying to hear people say the book changed their lives. Other times, I'll be reading a biography or an article about someone prominent in the computer world, and they'll mention "Hackers." Some have told me "I recognize myself in this book, and I didn't know those other people were out there."
If you were writing the book today, how would you approach it?
SL: It's hard to say because so much now is taken for granted that wasn't even thought of back then. One of the precepts of the hacker ethic -- which I tried to codify based on what I saw as the implicit assumptions of hackers for various generations -- was that you can create art and beauty on a computer. That was a crazy idea back then, but now it's pretty obvious. The super edgy ideas at that time are now so mainstream you don’t even think about them. So, now, it would have to be a really different kind of book.
The 25th anniversary edition contains updated material. What did you add?
SL: I went back to some of the people originally in the book. I also talked to people who, if I were writing the book now, would've been in it.
Working behind the update was the idea that we had all gotten older. That just happens after 25 years. Everyone was still as enthusiastic as before, though. Take Bill Gates. Even though he has a different job, he's still as hardcore as he was. He's hacking vaccinations, now. And don't think for a minute he's lost track of what happens with Microsoft.
The new people were great. Mark Zuckerberg, to me, is the person who embodies the kind of hacker who doesn't see the conflict so much between commerce and computer creativity. It's all at peace to him.
Hacking in the present day
Are we in a position now where low-cost storage and pay-as-you-go resources will unlock a level of innovation similar to what you encountered when you were writing "Hackers"?
SL: It's a continuation. At the time, creating a program that lived on a paper tape and that was shared among a dozen people was as revolutionary and as dramatic a change as these cloud-based application centers are now. That same sort of flexibility and launching pad for creativity snowballed into something that the masses now participate in.
Is Apple's success with closed products (iPhone, iPad, etc.) an ominous sign for hacking?
SL: Even though Apple has an iron hand in executing the limits that they've set, there's a lot of creativity that happens on the iPhone and the iPad. Setting those limits isn't a very hackerish thing to do. But certainly if you're a hacker and you're so inclined, you could work within those limits and you could write something that Apple would approve. And people have. Just because Apple has top-down regulation, doesn't mean there's no room for creativity.
What is the next frontier for hacking? Physical goods? Biological? Something else?
SL: I don't think we're done with computer hacking. It's more important than ever to have creative ways to make use of this unbelievable infrastructure that we've created.
Any time you think it's all been done, someone comes up with something that changes everything. Look at Napster. There was this period where people thought all the big companies would make all the big decisions, and then Napster came out of a dorm room and knocked everything upside down. We're going to see more of those. Facebook came from a dorm room, right? A great idea that's well implemented can go farther than it's ever been able to go before.
This interview was condensed and edited.
Related:
Saturday, June 26, 2010
BBC News - Bionic feet for amputee cat
A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.
The new feet are custom-made implants that "peg" the ankle to the foot. They are bioengineered to mimic the way deer antler bone grows through the skin.
The operation - a world first - was carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Surrey.
His work is explored in a BBC documentary called The Bionic Vet.
The cat, named Oscar, was referred to Mr Fitzpatrick by his local vet in Jersey, following the accident last October. Oscar was struck by the combine harvester whilst dozing in the sun.
The prosthetic pegs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (Itaps) were developed by a team from University College London led by Professor Gordon Blunn, who is head of UCL's Centre for Biomedical Engineering.
Professor Blunn and his team have worked in partnership with Mr Fitzpatrick to develop these weight-bearing implants, combining engineering mechanics with biology.
Mr Fitzpatrick explained: "The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone."
"We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an 'exoprosthesis' that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal's limbs to give him effectively normal gait."
Professor Blunn told BBC News the idea was initially developed for patients with amputations who have a "stump socket".
"This means they fix their artifical limb with a sock, which fits over the stump. In a lot of cases this is sucessful, but you [often] get rubbing and pressure sores."
The Itap technology is being tested in humans and has already been used to create a prosthetic for a woman who lost her arm in the July 2005 London bombings.
"The intriguing thing with Oscar was that he had two implants - one in each back leg, and in quite an unusual site," Professor Blunn told BBC News.
He said that the success of this operation showed the potential of the technology.
"Noel has some brilliant ideas," he added. "And we're continuing to work closely with him to develop new technologies."
The Bionic Vet is on BBC 1 at 2245 BST on Wednesday
Toomany bullfighters, so few good vets. Read story for cat's video
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sinergia sin control
El Gobierno podría optar por una solución intermedia entre la libertad actual para utilizar redes P2P y descargar todo tipo de material y el propuesto por las leyes francesas, que amenaza con desconectar a los usarios reincidentes: limitar la velocidad de la conexión ADSL.
baquia.com
When Animals Resist Their Oppression « Animal Visions
The gorilla as she attempts to escape (Photo courtesy: Erica Bullins/June 3, 2010
The headlines read “Curious Gorilla Attempts Several Escapes at NC Zoo“. Today in Asheboro, NC, local news reported that a gorilla after multiple attempts climbed to the top of her fence enclosure with the aid of a fallen tree limb. The spectator filming her attempt to escape called 911 and zoo authorities came and shut down the exhibit in order to “check the enclosure for safety and integrity” and to reassure the public that a gorilla attempting to escape her captivity won’t happen again at the North Carolina Zoo.
However, this is not the first time an animal attempting to escape a zoo made the news. In 2007, a tiger attempted escape from the San Francisco Zoo and her efforts resulted in the death of her and a 17-year old young man.
Often when an animal uses force (sometimes deadly) to escape, the police kill him because his escapes are perceived as attacks, and often time they are. Therefore, he poses a threat to society and to the zoo that is supposed to be a safe enclosure where human adults and children can “enjoy nature” without having to step outside the concrete buffers of civilization. The way civilized society stands, the animal’s sheer desire for freedom is a threat.
After the attempted escape, the zoo officials can make sure that it’s reduced to “human error” and rest assure that the error will be mended–never mind that the individual has attempted escape more than once. The media never reports credit towards the animal. Because if they did, the zoos and the people who enjoy their exhibitions would have more to fear.
Stories like these will always happen so long as wild animals are forced into captivity and put on exhibition. Though the individual struggles are not globally organized, their attempts to leave their cages are powerful stories reflecting their will to live free and to escape their oppression. This is more than a fictional account to entertain children like the movie Madagascar. This is real life, with real individuals, many of whom have died trying to escape. This is a global phenomenon.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Masta Lucky - Yo soy tu suerte
15 years with this motherfucker rocker so he ends up doing this crap.
Chicho is a sold out
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tierra de nadie » Apple quiere hacernos felices
Entre tanto, dejemos que Apple nos proteja, que decida qué libros podamos leer en sus cacharros, porque sólo se pueden comprar en sus tiendas, y que, de paso, nos libere de la esclavitud de ver páginas porno en Internet, que es un vicio muy feo que quiere erradicar.
Friday, June 4, 2010
IBM distributes virus-laden USB keys at security conference
ASHER MOSES
May 21, 2010
IBM has been left with egg on its face after it distributed virus-laden USB keys to attendees at Australia's biggest computer security conference.
Delegates of the AusCERT conference, held over the past week at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, were told about the malware problem in a warning email this afternoon by IBM Australia chief technologist Glenn Wightwick.
The incident is ironic because conference attendees include the who's who of the computer security world and IBM was there to show off its security credentials.
Advertisement: Story continues belowSome attendees may have thought they were experiencing dejavu as Telstra was left red-faced at the 2008 AusCERT conference for also distributing malware-infected USB drives.
"At the AusCERT conference this week, you may have collected a complimentary USB key from the IBM booth," Wightwick wrote.
"Unfortunately we have discovered that some of these USB keys contained malware and we suspect that all USB keys may be affected."
Wightwick said the virus spreads when the infected USB device is inserted into a Windows computer but noted it should be detected by the majority of current anti-virus products.
He instructed attendees not to use the USB key and return it to IBM's head office.
AusCERT attendee Tom Piotrowski, managing director of IT security company Unixpac, said he was left "speechless" by the incident.
"Hundreds of IT security professionals make a pilgrimage to AusCERT each year," he said.
"Delegates are going there to listen about the latest developments in security technology ... just think how big an embarrassment a boo-boo like this must be for IBM."
Source: smh.com.au