Support: Free/Open or Privative Software?
2010-08-23 | Categories: Articles, Technology | Tags: foss
One of the most common concerns managers have about free/open source software is the product support. I’ve listened their arguments and I found that many of them are so valid concerns and I agree with them but I think there is something they are missing.
Is the privative software support exactly what managers expect and need? The answer is: It depends of how much money your company invests in privative software, so if you are a good client ($$$) it’s probably that you’ll receive support quickly but what happen with companies that don’t have a great budget? Well, they have to wait their turn and hopefully receive the expected support.
So, will it be worse with free/open source software? I don’t think so, the knowledge is spread in the internet and it’s highly probably that other company in the world had the same problem and there are many free/open source companies with highly skillful guys that can find a solution looking the source code or just searching wisely in the web.
The support contract can guarantee a certain level of support in paper but is it what your company really needs in time response and money? There are privative software with great support but it’s not easily to find or costs a lot.
I think free/open software is just another option that companies have to validate and decide just like they do with privative software so support shouldn’t be the big reason to avoid looking what free/open software has to offer.
2010-03-17 | Categories: Articles, Productivity | Tags: moleskine
Everywhere I go, I have a Moleskine with me and it’s inevitable to respond questions like: what is it? why Moleskine? when I have a meeting or just having around with friends. After a year using this notebooks, I became a huge Moleskine fun and these are the reasons why I like them:
- Story: Humans like stories and Moleskine story is motivating. I’m saying the story because the real history could be a little different. Well, it’s another feeling and I compare it like using Mac (Molesking) vs a PC (simple notebook).
- Paper format: There are plain, ruled, square, pentagram, etc., etc. paper formats so you can have a notebook that fits your needs. I use plain paper format because I want to have all the freedom for writing notes, ideas, mindmaps, etc.
- Cover: You can can choose hard or soft cover so you can feel comfortable carrrying it and writing.
- Page marker and inner pocket: A page marker is always useful and inner pocket helps you to keep papers, post-its, etc. and is so useful.
- Size: Pocket, Large and Extra-Large notebooks are available. I always carry a pocket size notebook and I use a large size for mindmaps about conferences & books I read.
In conclusion, I use Molesking because it has a lot of features that motivate me for writing notes, ideas, etc. which is a great technique I read from Pragmatic Thinking & Learning by Andy Hunt.
Debian: Synchronizing server time with NTP
2010-03-14 | Categories: Articles, Technology | Tags: debian, foss, linux
It’s a good practice to have all the servers synchronized with the same date & time, no matter what servers you’re using (windows, linux, mac, aix, etc). It’s a quite simple configuration to avoid any kind of problems related with time, some applications specify this requirement other don’t so please don’t wait until you have problems to apply this simple config.
Configuring Debian GNU/LiNUX to use a public NTP Server is simple, just do this:
$ sudo aptitude install ntpdate
The ntpdate package includes the file /etc/if-up.d/ntpdate that runs /usr/bin/ntpdate-debian after an interface (eth0, eth1, etc.) is up so you won’t have to worry about configuring this synchronizing process to run automatically. Let’s run it manually so we apply the time from the NTP Server right now:
$ sudo ntpdate-debian 14 Mar 21:41:50 ntpdate[10808]: step time server 146.164.48.5 offset -0.589987 sec
That’s it! This is the simple way but if you want to try a more advance config just read /usr/share/doc/ntpdate/README.Debian and /etc/default/ntpdate files in your server.
2010-02-23 | Categories: Articles, Health | Tags: migraine
The migraine affects different aspects of your life: work and productivity, social relationship as result it affects the quality of living. I wrote about my migraine in a previous post, in short I have migraine with aura accompanied by vertigo for 15 to 30 minutes and after that a headache for 6 to 24 hour. The migraine trigger for me is little or too much sleeping and stress makes it happens more frequently.
I’ve got that information by taking notes for three months. The solution could be just trying to sleep eight hours but sometimes it’s inevitable because of the crunch time at work or personal project, going to a social event, etc. etc. I want to avoid any dependence of pharmacological drugs so what can I do? I tried different ways (founded in internet) to solve this problem: going to the gym, eating an ice cream after the aura, etc, etc. and nothing works for me.
In 2008, when I was thinking about my migraine problem I read Pragmatic Thinking & Learning by Andy Hunt. It’s a really good book and I like the way Andy explains how our mind works using computer metaphors. So I got an idea,… I’ve been involved in software development since I was ten years old so maybe if I thinking about the migraine as a software problem (bug) could help me to find a solution.
I spent a whole week thinking about the migraine as a bug. I used the trial and error method to verify my ideas for some months until I got this:
The migraine starts with 15 to 30 minutes with an aura, the problem is the amount of wrong information between the systems involved (brain and eyes) because I see something (aura) that doesn’t exist and my brain knows that so maybe it requests again and again information to the eyes. That could explain why after the aura disappears the headache is worse just behind the eyes because both systems were overloaded.
I can’t upgrade those systems (sadly) so I tried to find a way to filter the wrong information: closing my eyes, going to lightly room, etc, etc,… and one day I had a headache attack while I was reading a book and what I used to do is stop reading because reading with a little vertigo is quite complicated but this time I decided to continue and tried to concentrate in the reading and not paying attention to the aura. When the aura disappears I don’t have a headache!!!!
I was surprised about this event so I took my notes and write about it. Then every time I had an aura, I started to read anything and after the aura disappear most of the time I didn’t have a headache. My conclusion was:
To filter the wrong information I have to force my brain to pay attention to other thing (reading a book) instead of the aura.
The next month I tried to find other ways beside reading a book for avoiding the headache so with practice now when I have an aura I can pay attention to other things like the street, the computer, colors, etc. and don’t have headache. I have 15-30 minutes with the aura but I don’t have headaches for 6-24 hours and that’s improved dramatically my quality of living.
I hope to have time to write other post about this technique in detail. If you have the same type of migraine you could tried what I write here, maybe it could work maybe not but it could help you to find a solution for your case.
2010-02-23 | Categories: Articles, Health | Tags: migraine
My first migraine occurs during a soccer game, I was the goalkeeper and suddenly I started to have a perceptual disturbance. It started with a little tiny brightly point and transformed to a long long brightly zigzag lines so I can’t be sure of what I was seeing because everything was like a dream.
I don’t know why we won the game with a blind goalkeeper but that’s another story. When the game finished, I was feeling better because I can see normally but a terrible headache started. I felt like dying because it was so painful and lasted until the next day. I had two more migraines after that day with the same symptoms but I didn’t go to see a doctor because that was a headache and nothing more. My mother told me that she had something similar several years ago and she thoughts it was migraine.
When that happened, I was 15 years old and over the next years I had that terrible headaches only once a year so I forgot to think about it and try to find a solution. Sadly when I was 25 years old and I was working in a software development company when the headaches started again but this time they occur once a day during a week so I thought that something terrible is going to happen to me. I went to see a doctor and he ordered a lot of exams to find if something unusual was happening in my brain but he can’t find anything wrong so he told me: “You have migraine and you have to find what is the trigger“.
The doctor told me that pharmacological drugs can help me to avoid the terrible headaches but they are addictive so my body will need more and more to avoid the pain. I didn’t like that so I decided to find the trigger, I read a lot of information in internet and I started to take notes of what I ate, drank, weather, stress level, etc. After that terrible week, I have migraines more frequently from one to six times a month so after a few months I had enough data to see that my migraine trigger was little sleep or too much sleep and also the stress is an important factor.
I can try to sleep enough but work, my personal projects and also social events from time to time won’t let me sleep eight hours so what can I do? The migraine affects not only my productive time, it also affects my personal life so I decided to find a solution and in the next post I will share how I find a solution for my migraines.
2009-10-04 | Categories: Articles, Productivity | Tags: agile, mind, mind map
¿Qué son los mapas mentales?
Es una técnica que busca potenciar la forma de trabajo que tiene nuestro cerebro, a través del uso de palabras o imágenes relacionadas entre si con lineas. Estos diagramas son más fáciles de recordar que lineas de texto, es más puede incluso estimular nuestro cerebro a encontrar otros conceptos y relacionarlos con los que ya se tienen.
Los mapas mentales son diagramas que se usan para organizar, generar ideas y capturar información; podemos usarlos para estudiar, resolver problemas, tomar decisiones, escribir artículos y mucho más.
