Published: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:20:16 +0000 
Esta é a programação que pretendo fazer nesta Virada Cultural. São as coisas que eu quero ver, e em vermelho as coisas que mais quero e pretendo conseguir.
Este ano o foco vai ser só música. Não dá pra fazer tudo… 
|
|||||
|
By  Avi on  Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:20:16 +0000 | Tags:  lang:pt tech:no | Categories: Chronicles Music & Podcasts Isn’t this web app very neat? You must interact to feel it. By Avi on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:09:03 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:ok | Categories: Community and Society Web 2.0 Está lá no céu exatamente agora este Arco-Íris sorrindo prá gente.
Alguns dos prédios na foto são os da Rua Estela. Nota do dia seguinte: Na noite desse arco-íris houve um terremoto que muitas pessoas sentiram em São Paulo. Parece até causo bíblico: arco-íris relacionado a desastres naturais como dilúvios e terremotos. By Avi on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:46:23 +0000 | Tags: lang:pt tech:no | Categories: Chronicles Metaphysics Moisés conduziu os Hebreus escravos, a base do insosso pão que não inchou, do Egito à uma terra prometida de Israel onde jorraria com abundância o leite e o mel. Até hoje celebra-se esse acontecimento como a Pascoa Judaica, ou Pessach. Então desejo a todos vocês um bom Pessach recordando o verdadeiro sentido de tudo isso: libertar-se das coisas que nos escravizam, dos desejos inchados, dos vícios físicos e mentais, e ir ao encontro de um prometido aqui-interior onde a felicidade e bem aventurança jorram em abundância como se fossem leite e mel. By Avi on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:48:45 +0000 | Tags: lang:pt tech:no | Categories: Community and Society Metaphysics Alguém pode me explicar por favor? Isso transcende o meu poder de compreensão. A post by Michael DeHaan and others inspired me to say a few words about the importance of ISO standards for developers: Many developers are clamming that good specifications are more important than standards, specially now that the OOXML process opened to the public the dungeons of ISO processes and how the organization produces standards. This is a clear example on how ISO’s reputation is compromised. But unfortunately “ISO standards” are what governments tend to use. These are the words they put in their Request For Proposals when they are going to buy things. These “ISO standards” are the words they use to claim how they’ll interoperate and trade across borders. And also how public institutions will interoperate with private institutions. Over time, it defines also how private institutions use technology. So yes, ISO standards for Information Technology do matter from a developer standpoint because they are crucial in shaping the flow of information in the society in general. Lets put it this way: technical specifications stand for research and development team while to be an ISO standard equals to have a strong sales force. An IT product needs both to succeed. So you, developer, can use whatever you want or like. But if you want to interoperate with non-developer folks, you — the smartest guy in this context — will have to use what non-developers use, and they use what has a stronger marketing force as “this is an ISO standard”. This is why ISO standards (good or bad) should be in the focus of our attention. Since the world already has an International Standards Organization, and since we learned it must be patched, it is our responsability — we, the developers, geeks, sysadmins etc — to be aware of and get involved with what ISO is standardizing right now and help the technical process of standardization to happen solely with technical arguments and not political interests. Otherwise the future world will still be divided in two groups of developers: those that develop with/for good stuff and those that develop with/for stuff used by non-developers just because a powerful company had the strength to standardize it whatever it takes. By Avi on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:12:35 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:ok | Categories: Info & Biz Technology
Fontes
Por Doc Searls. Original: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9976#mpart1 Se ganhasse uma fortuna hoje eu iria:
E você ?
Fontes
Por Doc Searls. Original: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9943#mpart1
There was an ISO/IEC/JTC1 meeting in Oslo, Norway wednesday and the local community protested against OOXML and demanded more integrity in ISO’s processes. I couldn’t agree more. Esta semana levei uns parentes do exterior para jantar no Tordesilhas, restaurante brasileiro especializado em Bobós, Farofas, Muquecas, Maracujás, Mandiocas, Dendês, Côcos, Pimentas, Cachaças, Goiabas, Açaís etc da nossa Terra Brasilis. Eu fiquei nada menos que impressionado em como tudo estava saboroso e o atendimento impecável. Esse restaurante é parada obrigatória para qualquer estrangeiro que der um tempo em São Paulo, afinal nossa culinária e sua diversidade é a rota mais deliciosa para se conhecer o Brasil. Você, brasileiro, também não deixe de experimentar. R. Bela Cintra 465, perto da Av. Paulista. Algumas pessoas andaram me perguntando por que a IBM não está participando do FISL 2008. Percebia em seu tom de voz (ou nas linhas do Jabber/Google Talk) que na verdade perguntavam se a IBM está parando de suportar Open Source. Não está.
A IBM continua a suportar Linux, Open Source e Padrões Abertos de forma absolutamente central. Muitos dos produtos mais estratégicos da IBM tem elementos Open Source em seu núcleo, como o Eclipse, Apache, diversas bibliotecas etc. Além do mais, Linux ocupa um papel fundamental como plataforma operacional para uma série de iniciativas de Cloud Computing, Grid, Web Services etc. Linux é inclusive a plataforma sugerida, sempre que possível, na implementação de soluções em clientes.
Sem usar meu chapéu da empresa, minha opinião é que a IBM tem uma estratégia muito bem balanceada sobre como usar e integrar Open Source. Muita inovação ainda acontece no universo do software de código fonte fechado e não há porque não explorar isso comercialmente. Mas é muito claro dentro da empresa que Open Source está deixando de ser algo somente para a infraestrutura e vem avançando no middleware e níveis acima também. Isto é muito be visto como uma rota natural da indústria de software. E se por acaso a IBM demonstra uma resistência ou outra quando algum Open Source passa a concorrer diretamente com um de nossos produtos, isso é só um reflexo do instinto de preservação que em seguida abre espaço para adaptação.
A IBM este ano não está participando do FISL por uma questão tática temporária interna. Alguns grupos mudaram, pessoas se movimentaram (como acontece em todas as empresas) e simplesmente não deu tempo. Só isso. Mas ficou uma vontade enorme de ir. Em 2007 participei de uma série de reuniões com clientes e discussões sobre a importância do Second Life na estratégia de qualquer pessoa ou empresa que se julgue “in”. Veja, não estou dizendo que o Second Life é importante, mas que muitas pessoas e empresas chegaram a discutir isso seriamente. Levante a mão quem já entrou no Second Life. Agora levante a mão quem entrou mais de uma vez e continua usando. A Sociedade da Informação de hoje não esta pronta nem tecnológica nem psicologicamente para esses mundos virtuais. Mas eles nos ensinaram uma lição: muito relacionamento humano está acontecendo em forma de fluxo de bits, e as empresas querem estar onde as pessoas [seus clientes] estão. O Second Life (e similares) é a manifestação máxima dessa malha digital de relacionamentos (também conhecida como Web 2.0), mas se é ainda inusável, que tal as empresas clarearem seus objetivos – estar perto das pessoas, lembra? – e usarem outras ferramentas da mesma família para atingí-los? Que tal criarem blogs corporativos para se comunicarem de forma mais direta, descontraida e interativa com seus clientes, como a IBM, Sun, Intel, Google, Microsoft, Nokia tem feito ? Que tal aumentarem sua participação em comunidades onde as pessoas estão, como Orkut, Facebook etc? Essas festas online, especificamente, são um prato cheio para fabricantes de produtos de uso final. E não estou falando de spam, mas de uma participação oficial que realmente agregue valor. Que tal usarem conceitos de Wikinomics a fim de criar novos produtos baseado diretamente no desejo do consumidor ? Agências de propaganda que tiverem afinidade com essas novas características da Sociedade da Informação poderão levar seus clientes a graus de competitividade mais confortáveis. Profissões como Gerente de Redes Sociais, Blogueiro Corporativo, Evangelizador Digital estão surgindo no horizonte, são profissionais raros e que começam a ser procurados pelas empresas. Esse profissional precisa de alguns ingredientes bem apimentados: capacidade de comunicação, bom conhecimento dos produtos da empresa, entender como redes sociais digitais funcionam, seus códigos de ética etc, alguns conhecimentos do linguajar dessa nova esfera (feeds, podcasts, trackbacks, avatars, OpenIDs etc) para fazer a tecnologia efetivamente trabalhar a seu favor, noções de user-friendlyness, etc. Meio técnico, meio comunicador, meio designer, meio webguy. Uma mistura bastante peculiar de características. E como se trata de comunicação externa, há um certo risco e medo envolvido. “Será que meu blogueiro vai falar o que não deve, revelar segredos, etc?”. Posso contar como isso aconteceu aqui na IBM. Há anos foram criados blogs, wikis e outras ferramentas típicas da Web 2.0 na Intranet. Todo funcionário pode ter seu blog interno, pode criar um wiki, etiquetar sites e pessoas, e automaticamente tem um perfil online tipo Orkut, que chamamos de Bluepages. Há também uma atmosfera e incentivo quase que formal para fomentar inovação, mas isso é outra história. Alguns funcionários que começaram a blogar internamente passaram a fazer isso para a Internet. Houve uma espécie de seleção natural dos escritores. O curioso é que essas ferramentas internas não foram criadas para fazer tal seleção. Mas seu uso é tão marcante no dia a dia dos funcionários que elas até viraram produtos para empresas que querem criar sua infraestrutura para a Web 2.0 sem o uso das ótimas opções em Software Livre que existem por aí. Mas voltando às profissões, o mais interessante é que não há curso universitário que forme para tal missão. Pense nisso. Num jantarzinho em casa ontem abrimos um Chocalán Carmenère Reserva 2005 que eu trouxe do Chile semana retrasada. Comprei esse vinho porque pude degustar na loja, era bem barato (acho que uns R$25 depois de converter de Pesos Chilenos) e a princípio não tinha gostado do cheiro, mas o sabor era bem melhor. A surpresa ontem: depois que ele ficou bastante tempo respirando, ficou melhor ainda. Definitivamente uma ótima relação custo-benefício. Diga-se de passagem, meu amigo enófilo me disse que 2005 foi um super ano para os vinhos chilenos, apesar de ainda ser cedo para abrí-los. This is my first post in the new WordPress 2.5. Upgrade was as easy as: $ cd avi.alkalay.net
$ svn sw
Everything worked without any changes, including my experimental content-optimized Plasma theme. The new WordPress has lots of improvements, specially in the administration part and I recommend it. I am learning a lot from all this standardization process. I was a member of the brazilian committee and I also analyzed the specification. My country disapproved OOXML and I think this was a decision based on logic lead by the process. The JTC1 rules page 49 item 9.8 says:
In other words, from my understanding, if there is one or more technical problems, the NB must disapprove the DIS. Many countries found many technical problems in OOXML that are still unresolved even after the BRM. I also understand that such an important matter as an International Standard for Office Documents can’t be defined by 10 or 30 opinions collected as votes in a committee. Thats why the JTC1 process above talks about technical content, not opinion or vote. What I learned from studying the OOXML specification is that it is not ready for acceptance since many countries have found and reached consensus that the spec has problems, even after the BRM. If the NB-leveraged technical team — formed by people that would vote YES and NO — has produced a list of submitted problems in the spec, this list is by itself the consensus that the spec is still problematic. I would like to understand why an NB that has produced technical comments voted YES or ABSTAINED. I thought abstention is a position for countries that were not able to create a committee to technically discuss the specification for reasons such as logistics or lack of quorum. I am learning about all this and I’d like to have more solid arguments to build an opinion about these NB’s maturity to run a well documented process. By Avi on Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:22:44 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:ok | Categories: Info & Biz Technology OpenDocument Format Check it out:
This NO was a result of a very difficult meeting. Consensus was not reached and a lot of confusion happened. Exactly as in the first brazilian NO. The NB had to decide the final vote based on technical issues still open in OOXML. The problem was the method of deciding and those technical points were not presented. So people only had in their head the Microsoft arguments that I already knew were part half trues and part complete lies. I participated in the OOXML process in 3 countries and I was able to build an opinion on how normalization happens today in the world, and I’ll show some ideas in a future post. By the way, this is how Caracas looks like, a city surrounded by huge green mountains that have behind them the Caribbean Sea.
Finally Jomar, one of the brazilian delegate that went to OOXML’s BRM in Geneva has started to tell all the dirty little details of what really happened in that meeting and the surreal modus operandi of how 120 people can discuss 1027 issues in 5 days. Have fun in english and portuguese. Oh, and talking about dirty playing, check the domain www.DocumentFreedomDay.com but remember that the original one is www.DocumentFreedom.org. The first one really deserves a DDoS attack. Open Malasia blog has a user friendly post with a map of the voting. See the tables and understand the voting criterias. By Avi on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:05:11 +0000 | Tags: lang:en short tech:ok | Categories: OpenDocument Format It is now official. Brazilian vote was decided by consensus of the entire technical team, including Microsoft crew’s: OOXML does not deserve to be an international ISO standard. Our first vote, in august, was also NO, due to the same reasons: OOXML is an awful specification. That outcome was expected because we simply followed the process: technically analyze the OOXML specification, make comments, wait for responses, analyze them and see if all problems were fixed. Is there any single remaining unresolved problem? Vote NO. And in fact there were many many unresolved problems. If every country followed this simple process, OOXML would receive a NO from 100% of them. But in some countries, how is the process? Invite a few companies and simply count their votes. The problem here: 10, 20 or 80 votes can never represent what is the best for that country. Only, maybe, if you collect one vote for each citizen. What I am trying to say is that in this case a decision must be reached by technical consensus, not vote. It is not a matter of will, but a technical issue that can only be reached by rational analysis and deliberation. In Chile for example, 21 voting companies will define a 15 million people country vote in ISO. How easy is to lobby these 21 companies with Power Point presentations telling complete plain lies ? Technically speaking, if your country’s vote was YES or ABSTENTION, one of these possibilities happened:
Seems stupid, but these are exactly the 2 possibilities of OOXML getting YES votes in ISO. It is still an awful specification. By the way, Brazil would vote NO again and again and again even if all OOXML’s technical issues could be resolved. OOXML would still have legal issues and also serious overlap problems with the OpenDocument Format ISO standard. I was not present in today’s meeting in ABNT because I already knew what would be the result, since the process of analysis and deliberation in Brazil was very strictly followed. Hopefully Jomar will write about it and you can check more details. Sempre achei que a canção Azucar de Caña dos peruanos Trio Los Chasquis é a melhor companheira da poesia Cantá. Na simplicidade da vida, na alegria do trabalho, no trabalho no campo e na beleza e quanto ambos me sensibilizam. By Avi on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:05:01 +0000 | Tags: lang:pt short tech:no | Categories: Podcast: general Can Open Source Software be more ubiquitous than this ? A few days ago I was playing extensively with Apple’s iPhone, investigating each sub-menu and little details. There is a section listing legal stuff and software being used with each license. GPL, LGPL, BSD and other Open Source licensed software rule the iPhone. Some I have noted:
By Avi on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:49:42 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:yes | Categories: Linux & Open Source Mobility
This is real Interoperability
Microsoft started their so called “interoperability” initiative. With a deeper look we find that the main objective of the released specifications is to let developers interact with their products only, something I like to call Intra-operability.
This is Intraoperability
See the difference? Microsoft technical specifications have serious technical and legal issues, and are being released not to increase interoperability across people, organizations and applications, but to leverage the use of their products. For the standard document format scenario: OOXML is about allowing other people to interact with files that are primarily generated and manipulated with Microsoft Office. It is not about full interoperability, which would enable competition with Microsoft Office, for obvious reason. For each purpose or scope, better open standards exist and should be adopted and used instead: Java versus .NET, XHTML versus IE-campatible-only DHTML, ODF versus OOXML, etc My friend Cezar Taurion has also written some words about Intra-operability (in portuguese). Bob Sutor also put together some words about it. These graphics are available in a friendly Creative Commons license, in this animated ODF file, in case you want to integrate them in your presentations. PDF export also available. By Avi on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:19:16 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:ok | Categories: Info & Biz Technology OpenDocument Format One of the most critical and discussed points of the whole OOXML subject is how the specification lets you include binary proprietary information. Let me show you how it happens with a piece of an OOXML document, the red-marked text is the problematic part (see for yourself, §6.2.2.14, paper page 4,813, lines 7–13): <v:shape>
<o:ink i="AMgFHQSWC+YFASAAaAwAAAAAAMA..." annotation="t" contentType="application/x-ms-ink"/>
</v:shape>
So you, as a programmer, please tell me what to do if you are developing an application that must read and generate this kind of document. How can I find documentation about this encoded binary stream? Is this a good practice in XML? Anyway, this kind of (bad) design appears in many parts of the OOXML spec. Want more examples of bad design? Have fun. Suppose I really want to develop this kind of support in my application, I am a master programmer and reverse-engineered a few examples generated with a copy of MS Office 2007 that I had to buy. Or maybe I just found the specification of this proprietary application/x-ms-ink type and go to develop a library to handle it. Inevitably, my library will reimplement aspects of some Microsoft library with same functionality, and according to a Software Freedom Law Center report, the Microsoft Open Specification Promise (OSP, basically the not-open-enough license Microsoft lawyers wrote for the usage and implementation of OOXML) cover’s the specification only, not code. I will be sued for patent infringement. On software rewrite, not on specification usage. Then the rape begins. Microsoft is claiming that this was solved in the ISO’s BRM meeting. This is the solution, from the ridiculous 12 pages resolutions, page 7:
Who reads this resolution with high level eyes may think that all binary fields will be removed from the specification. But please, you, as a programmer, tell me how the so called Editor will find all and every single part of a 6000+ pages specification containing bitfields? How he’ll expand all those bitfields in an XML subspecification? Will he invent some? Is he the right person (or team) to do that? When done and if done, the specification will be something completely new, full of new parts. Will jump from 6063 pages to maybe 7500. Oh, and did I mention it will be something that even MS Office 2007 or 2008 don’t support today? Supporting or not, implemented or not, this new unexistent specification is the “thing” that countries’ National Bodies are voting right now, without even seeing it, without checking if it was corrected, without having time for this because they didn’t receive it for revision. They won’t have time to review 6000+ pages because the deadlines defined by the ISO’s Fast Track process are over. So the question is how ISO/IEC and JTC1 let such a big and problematic specification enter the light Fast Track process? My answare: ISO was raped. I’ve been talking to several people that will define their country’s vote and their mindset is “are you really putting ISO in such a bad position?” Well, yes. You know, in the end ISO is not god. They are a bunch of people that, like you and me, have religions, aspirations, problems, family, go to the bathroom etc. Like you and me, they may be also naive in regard to some subjects, particularly document formats. Then comes Microsoft excellent speakers showing PowerPoint charts that are plain lies (e.g. “OpenOffice.org supports OOXML”) and people believes them. People have two choices: to question ISO’s reputation in the OOXML case, or question IBM, Sun, Oracle, Red Hat, Free Software Law Center, ODF Alliance and many other institutions’ reputation when they massively scream in chorus that OOXML has serious technical, legal and standardization process issues. This is a world where organizations like ECMA has completely lost the respect of the technical community. But this is not a big problem, because we have other similar, still reliable bodies as OASIS, W3C, OSF, etc. This is a world where we will have to work hard to make ISO regain its (currently damaged) reliable status. This is a big problem, because we only have one (and only need one) International Standards Organization. This is your responsibility. To start this work get involved with your country’s National Body for standardization and promote the creation of a formal letter to ISO about the OOXML process, its problems and how ISO let that happen. INCITS in USA, ABNT in Brazil, INN in Chile etc. By Avi on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:18:29 +0000 | Tags: featured lang:en tech:ok | Categories: OpenDocument Format The title was the phrase written in a CD left in a Crown Plaza Hotel room I stood this days. Its excellent content is a relaxation program with very soft music to listen and do after you go to bed and before you fall asleep, with the aim to make you sleep better. I found it so effective that I read more through the CD cover. It is produced by a company called SoundSleep with the help of a certain Dr. Michael Breus. The cover also contained some other “holistic approach to sleep principles” which I also find useful and would like to share:
By Avi on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:02:40 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:no | Categories: Chronicles Metaphysics Music & Podcasts
This is an example of an old Excel bug that was transported to OOXML for “compatibility” reasons. In new OOXML, there are several non-standard ways to represent dates. The main one is this, that requires that 1900 is a leap year contradicting the Gregorian calendar, used for centuries now. Around early 1995 I was thinking about to stop eating meat. I thought that would do good for my body and my mind. Then I was waiting in a room, randomly took a book and randomly open it in the part that finally defined my decision. Later a saw many people becoming vegetarian because of the same part from the same book, so I found it important to share. The author was Sri Yukteswar and the book name is The Holy Science, from 1894. This is the part of the book that influenced my decision that time (copy and pasted from Sain Louis’ Guide to Vegetarian Life):
By the way, I am not 100% vegetarian today. I still have seafood very rarely, when is very difficult to find veggy options in some fancy restaurants. By Avi on Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:09:42 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:no | Categories: Metaphysics Vegetarianism This is a numerical photography of what is the Microsoft Office Open XML wannabe specification:
Or graphically:
And you still think OOXML is ready to become an International Standard Format for storing YOUR documents ? Come on, give me a break ! I decided to take the test to see how much the planet gets stressed with me. This is the result:
I have a lot to improve. Specially in goods (which was a weak test) and transportation. By Avi on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:27:22 +0000 | Tags: lang:en tech:no | Categories: Ecology & Environment Web 2.0 Li algumas coisas na Internet sobre o resultado final do BRM. Em alguns lugares encontrei números e interpretações das mais diversas sobre estes resultados. Como faço parte do comitê da ABNT que analisou o OOXML, resolvi conversar com o Jomar, que foi um dos delegados brasileiros em Genebra. Ele me disse que não pode comentar nada sobre estes números e sobre o resultado, pois no último dia do BRM, a autoridade da ISO lá presente alertou a todos que nenhum número deveria deixar a sala de reuniões, pois sem conhecer os processos de decisão lá adotados, nenhum número ou estatística faz sentido. Avisou ainda que qualquer divulgação ou utilização marketeira destes números é no mínimo irresponsável e segundo o entendimento dele uma Eu tentei insistir com o assunto (e olha que o cara é meu amigo), mas ele se recusou a me dar mais informações. Me pediu apenas para entrar em contato com quem divulgou as informações e pedir a ele os devidos esclarecimentos (incluíndo os critérios e regras de votação). Como eu sou insistente mesmo, acabei arrancando pelo menos uma explicação metafórica dele: “Se eu te disser que 85% da população mundial sobreviveu à II Guerra Mundial, você consegue concluir que esta guerra não foi tão ruim assim? Se não consegue é porquê conhece os detalhes do processo. Se consegue… vai ler os livros de história e estudar o processo e aproveite pois este episódio não teve uma “Lei do Silêncio” que obrigou todos os envolvidos a se calar. O BRM não vai ter “livro de história” para explicar a estatística.”. Números são apenas números e marketing será sempre marketing (e o Jomar não abre a boca mesmo… que chato). |
 Avi Alkalay is an Information Architect, Enterprise 2.0, Open Standards and Open Source do-it-all hacker at IBM Brazil. hCard/vCard
|
||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Avi Alkalay - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
