So, from the comfort of my chair and with all the time of the world to think about that questions, I will try to respond better this time.

What was your biggest challenge?

We can divide this question in two areas. One non-technical, and the other one technical.

My biggest non-technical challenge was when I worked as freelance. I dove into the world of freelancing thinking that was something easy, and I never could be more wrong.

I was a one-man orchesta, seeking for new clients, creating contracts, doing designs, making specifications, coding, finding bugs, solving them, making deploys, going to meetings, asking for payments, etc. I survived one year and half to that, and finally I have to quit when I started to go to the university.

My biggest technical challenge, as far I can remember, was when I created a web application for a marketing company, from the design to the code.

The application had to be completely personalizable, and had a lot of sections, so the database grow to has more than 30 tables (most of it related), and some queries took 5 seconds to complete. So I melted my brain trying to make things better and at that time I meet the pain of  working with complex databases.

What have you contributed to your team?

The best thing that I think I did, and I didn’t see in previous projects of the team, it’s high quality HTML/CSS layouts. That means that I’m careful on all the aspects of the layout (the minimum resolution to support, how it will look in super large screens, how It looks in most browsers, etc). Also, I try to use all the power of HTML + CSS. That means that I feel a bad person if I have to adjust things via scripts, even when I know that our web applications must have JS to run.

However, I prefer to use JS for the functionality, and HTML/CSS to render the application. At this time, in most cases I accomplish that, with some exception of the infamous Internet Explorer.

What are your favorite languages?

My current favorite language is JavaScript. I know that is not very suitable for back-end purposes (I work in a project that uses Node and didn’t get excellent results, but it’s acceptable), but as language as itself, and to work in the front-end, JavaScript it’s great.

What are you weakness?

I’m too responsible and perfectionist. Just kidding, thanks God I don’t have that terrible problems.

I don’t know all my weakness, but the current ones what I’m working on are about work estimation and status report.

I’m always sucked at doing estimations, and the best approach that I found to solve that it’s using ideal time estimation.

Ideal time is, take the time in my head, and then multiply by a factor like 3. So if in my head I think that a task will take me 6 hours or 1 day, the real time would be 18 hours or 3 days. But sometimes I have to do fast estimations, and several times I have problems with that.

And it won’t be so terrible if I told others that I’m stuck with a task. As a programmer, I love challenges, so when I get stuck, I’m get hypnotized by the problem and forgot about everything.

So I’m currently working to do better estimations, talk to others as soon as possible as I know that I can’t reach the task in the agreed time, and ask for help when I need it.

I have been waiting for a long time for a social network that doesn’t belongs to a corporation. I would like to see something open and libre, like Wikipedia but as a social network.

But I also believe that social networks aren’t just a way to exchange irrelevant data between you and your friends. I think that  social networks are a way to exchange valuable information, that can be relevant to your, to your friends or to other people. Also, can be a tool to organize your digital data.

This means that your data in a social network should be treated like your must valuable files. And you should be able to keep the copyright of your data, you should be able to have the rights to do with your data whatever you want to do, and you should be able to have the best possible backup and versioning of that data.

So this morning the lucky dragon visited me, and I did the prototype of a social network that not only stores your precious information into a git repository. It also stores your settings, your contacts and even the engine, everything in the same git repository.

This means that there’s no server keeping your data or doing with it only-God-knows-what. The presentation layer is an static HTML/CSS and the engine is a JS running in the user’s web browser. The JS will fetch the posts from the user’s contacts and push to Github the posts that the user writes.

Also, there will be a Github repo with the last version of the client, and you can clone the code to update your client, but you are not forced to do it. This makes a big contrast with Facebook, when they apply their infamous big changes.

And if you screw up something, or don’t like the new changes, no problem, because it’s a git repo, and you can do a rollback to a previous version of the client.

Github hosting

My first idea is to create a social network hosted on free Github accounts, as many current blogs. And seems to be possible, until you want to have something private, because in free Github account everything is public.

But just think about Twitter. Most of us has a public stream, and rarely we use DM. In Falkor, if you want to contact somebody directly, just drop an email.

Private features

Ok, I like Twitter, but I also like the Google Plus feature to share something with a group of people. Here Falkor has problems to fly over the sky laughing.

I think that private posts should be encrypted, and the contacts that has the proper keys can decrypt that posts. If you are in a public Github account, you will be able to create private posts, but you have to save that post’s keys jealously. And if you want to share a private post with somebody, then you will have to send to him/her the proper key.

This idea maybe can be a solution for secure storage of text data, but for images and other types of data, I don’t think that will work very well, because the browser will do the work of decrypt that data.

Searching in Falkor

If we stick to the idea that every browser will fetch the necessary data of each contact, searching things in Falkor will took a while (being optimistic).

We have to afford that to make a search, let’s say restricted to our contacts, the client running in the browser must fetch all the posts of each contact and then seek for the matching term.

In this kind of situations, and probably others, Falkor will have to appeal to third party services.

So, to solve the problem of searches, specially public searches, let’s say that a server will be fetching all the public posts and will be doing the requested searches.

That’s all, folks! (for now)

This is just the presentation of the idea. It will be great to hear your comments and thoughts. And if you want to participate in the development of the idea, you’re welcome to have a dragon ride

I think that people > 50 years have problems to recognize the current captchas. So I thought a different approach instead just make harder to read a bunch of symbols (current captcha direction).

A different approach

So I spend time seeking for a different way to separate humans from machines. And I found something more enjoyneable instead of tryng to recognize wierd letters. The result of this was puzzle captcha.

How it works?

On the left, the original image. Right, the puzzled

1. Load a random image from Flickr.
2. Create a puzzle
3. The user can drag the pieces to solve the puzzle, and when finish, click a button to send the result.

Internal mechanism

Each piece contains a code, the first piece has the code A1, the second piece B2, etc. When the puzzle is randomized, that codes are in a random order. When the user sends the result to the server, it must be in the correct order to pass the challenge.

What are the problems of puzzle captcha?

After a little research, I figure out that maybe this kind of captcha it’s easy to solve for a human, but also for a computer. The other nasty thing is that a 3×3 puzzle can take several time to solve (and that isn’t very cool). Maybe we can try with a 2×2 puzzle, but the possibilities to get the solved puzzle are very high, 1:24 (the factorial of 4 => 4.3.2.1).

How machines can solve this kind of puzzles

Machines can compare the % of similarity betwen the borders of each piece. This technique maybe is not 100% successful, but 1% of success is a serious problem. Just think 30 tries per second in 16 hours, that is 17 280 00 intents.

Possible solutions to this problems

1. Leave a gap between each piece (losing part of the image) in order to force to the machine bot to compare between inner pixels instead compare the borders.
2. Apply a mask with grain or diagonal lines in order to decrease the % of similarity between pieces.
3. Show random shapes and then ask to the user to enter the number of a particular kind (i.e. how many red squares are in the image).
4. Punish puzzle errors. The user can refresh the puzzle with a new image, but after X tries, she/he must wait 10 minutes.

Current state of puzzle captcha

For me, this project is archived. If you have some ideas or really think that it can work, please leave a comment or reach me.

Sometimes, also, the technologies changes and your code it’s old if you compare with the current solutions (for example, a web application written in Perl).

There is when it comes to your mind the possibility of complete code rewrite. And you say “Yes! I will do all right this time, based on the acquired experience of doing this application”.

But maybe you notice, or not, that program again all that functionalities that a mature software has is not so easy, and with the improved code comes also new bugs.  Not to talk about the incoming bugs that your new version justifies the complete code rewrite.

But well, what is the relation between this and reincarnation? Before ask that question, I will tell you what I understand about what karma and rencarnation is to me.

Personally, it don’t see as a religious think. It’s more like your heritage, but instead of an account balance, you get something like a life balance.

Karma and reincarnation in 3 steps

1. In your life you do a lot of things. You relate with your family, friends, and eventually you become able to expand your family.
2. What you do in your life doesn’t only affect you, it affects to all people where you relate with, and even with people that you don’t know.
3. When you go to that place that nobody exactly knows where is it, the things that you leave are not just material. There are also experiences with others, teachings and examples that remains in the minds of your loved ones.

That is the concept of reencarnation to me. The life that you has is shared with others, so it’s also part of them. Thus, you are part of other people (as the same way that others are part of you), and others has the power to learn of you and your experiences.

Karma would be the result of that life that you’ve shared with others.

So, going back to software, consider that if your software isn’t very well coded, you have a lot of karma to burn it if you stick with that code.

Or maybe you can start it all again, but if its a big project, it’s not easy to start from the ground again.

But take it easy, life it’s harder than develop software!

But please, before read this, don’t take my personal experience as a truth. This thoughts are just my personal perspectives and experiences, so just the time, maybe, will say if I’m right or wrong.

If you never have done meditation, the only way to know what it is is practicing it. Just imagine you reading an article about the experience of riding a bike. The only way to know what feels ride a bike, is taking one, ride it, fall, and ride again as the point that you make your own experience.

1. You can do things without a purpose.

   This is an issue that I see every day. We usually do things because we will get something in return (for example, you go to the street to do something, you cook to eat, etc.).

   So take the time to feel the life without do anything, and without expect any result, makes you feel in peace with you and the world, in harmony.

2. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

   I’m not always want to expend 30 or 40 minutes doing meditation. But after expend that time trying to have no pretensions about the time that I expending, I figure out that my laziness is the result of think in what I will feel doing the task.

   So the correct way, IMHO, to do what you have to do, is just do it, without think about the task, if will be boring or enjoyable, etc.

   Just do it without having a prejudice of how will be do the task.

3. You do meditation without expected results.

   Maybe you’ll get obsessed that every point that I mention seems to be the same. And probably you’re right, because I just trying to give each side of the same thing.

   What you would respond if somebody ask you why you play a music instrument? If I have to respond that question, probably I will say that because I enjoy doing that. But I won’t play to make money, or because I want to be a rockstar, or any other reason that just enjoy playing an instrument.

   Meditation to me is like that. In my opinion, It’s just a practice without other end than enjoy the meditation. Not to be smarter, or to has the mind clear. It’s just a thing that you do because you like to do it.

4. Sometimes things are easy, sometimes not.

   The waves sometimes are big and sometimes are small. The life is the same, and sometimes things are easy and sometimes are hard. Even you can have a bad day and it can turn into a good day, all in the same single day. So maybe this time, or period, things are hard, but like the waves, all are changing.
   A Japanese master gave me this explanation, with more or less words, when I asked if I should quit meditation because in last times I can’t got concentrated.

5. You do meditation for the good of all beings.

   I said that you do meditation without any final result or explanation. And practice something without any end and result, I think that it’s good to everybody. Because the genuine generosity is when you do something for someone without any expectation.
   Just remember the Gandhi’s quote: “There is enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for anybody’s greed”.
   Probably is part of us the selfishness, but the altruism is also part of us. And in fact, we have enough resources to complete the needs of everybody, but we still worried to lack something.
   Maybe practice the altruism is something that we need, and in fact we appreciate generous people than selfish ones.

6. All things has two sides.

   I think that this is a Buddhism or Asian concept, not sure, but this is more or less what I understood about what I heard.

   All of us want things, like happiness, health, being with certain people.

   But also, we don’t want other certain things, like sickness, poverty, being with certain people, etc. So always we are wanting something, and rejecting something.

   This is basically the concept, all things have two slides, but usually we can’t see the two slides at the same time.

   Think again in waves. Each wave is different from another, so in some way each one are unique. But at the same time, all are made of water. So there are the two sides, each wave is different but all are waves, all in the same time.

   And I think that the concept of the ying-yang it’s almost the same, all things has two sides, and each side has something to consider good and something to consider bad.

   When you meditate, seems like that you’re doing nothing. But without any movement you’re contemplating life. And sometimes, when you are doing something, feels that you’re doing nothing.

7. Take a break to your brain.

   When you meditate, and you think about the environment instead yourself, your brain stops for a moment the tasks of judge, expect, reject, make plans, etc.

   In my particular case, this feels like a rest to my brain and soul, and feels like you’ve practicing something wonderful and unusual. And in fact, is not very usual to hang out your body and mind of the everydayness.

8. Thoughts will always come to you brain, and you have to let them go

   Don’t get obsessed when you meditate things comes to you head. That is how your brain works, and you just have let them go, in the same way they come.

   Something interesting in connection with this, is about the lifetime of things, whatever concrete or abstract (like clothes or thoughts).

   When you have an old t-shirt, and breaks, you have to drop it. You know that its lifetime has ended and it’s in vain to keep it.

   So try to don’t hold your thoughts, just let them go. You’ll have a time to think and appreciate it.

   With the time, I feel that I can drive my thoughts, decide what thought I want to take and what I want to leave. That is also called concentration I think.

¿Porque es importante leer?

Creo que la importancia de la lectura radica en que uno puede absorber el conocimiento de personas que de otra forma, ya sea por cuestiones geográficas (el autor está lejos) o temporales (el autor está lejos, pero en el eje del tiempo) no podría.

Además que uno de los problemas de transmitir conocimientos de forma hablada es que las palabras se las lleva el viento, mientras que lo escrito queda asentado. Sin contar de que nuestra memoria puede fallar, mientras que podemos consultar incontables veces el mismo escrito sin irritar al profesor por nuestros reiterados olvidos.

Ahora bien, ya que subí a un altar a la lectura, voy a resaltar la importancia de Internet a nivel intelectual.

¿Porqué es importante Internet?

Internet nos libera de muchas limitaciones físicas. Estas limitaciones pueden ser, por un lado, la disponibilidad de la obra en nuestro barrio, el dinero para comprar la obra, el dinero para publicar la obra y el espacio para almacenar la obra (tengo un amigo que utiliza una casa como despensa de libros).

Esto significa que cualquier ñoqui (como el que escribe estas lineas) puede publicar textos en Internet, que cualquier persona (con acceso a Internet y sin filtros, claro) pueda leerlos, y que tenga a su disposición muchísimos autores, versiones, opiniones, etc.

Resumiendo, Internet nos permite el acceso a conocimientos que antes podían resultar difíciles de acceder.

Si a esta fuente inagotable le agregamos el poder de las computadoras para jugar con datos, estamos frente a una poderosa herramienta.

Como toda herramienta, el grado de utilidad estará directamente ligado a la forma en que se la utilice, a la habilidad para utilizar la herramienta y a los fines con cuales se la use.

¿Y que avance te parece más importante, Internet o la imprenta?

Con la invención de la imprenta se quebró una importante barrera del conocimiento. Con la invención de Internet, se rompió otra barrera más. Pero siempre estamos hablando de barreras que nos impiden la libre circulación de conocimiento.

Hay dos límites que no creo que sea posible superar, al menos con tecnología. La apreciación de los contenidos, es decir, leerlos, y el tiempo para consumirlos. Para eso no hay invento que valga, sólo cuenta nuestra voluntad.

Eso es todo, simplemente quería valorar las posibilidades que nos brinda Internet. Sé que dije un montón de cosas obvias, pero a veces me gusta ver la imagen grande y apreciar el paisaje.

• Harold and Maude (1971)
• The Swimmer (1968)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
• The African Queen (1951)
• A Passage to India (1984)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• Dear frankie (2004)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988)
• American Beauty (1999)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
• Bienvenido Mister Marshall (1953)
• Casino (1995)
• The planet of apes (1968)

El suele inclinarse por desarrollar soluciones sólidas, bien documentadas, escalables, etc.

Por mi parte, prefiero elegir tecnologías que me ahorran tiempo a la hora de realizar el proyecto. Hablo de soluciones conocidas que ya disponen de la mayoría de las funcionalidades que voy a necesitar. Priorizo esto por sobre la calidad del código de esos proyectos (un buen ejemplo es WordPress o Drupal).

Simplemente son formas diferentes de trabajo, el apuesta por un desarrollo escalable y yo por soluciones rápidas a costa de potenciales problemas de mantenimiento.

Ahora bien, yendo al asunto de la cuestión. Hoy estaba pensando en cambiar de enfoque. La realidad es que muchos proyectos por los que pasé terminan siendo reescritos, ya sea porque la arquitectura no soporta nuevos requerimientos, problemas de performance, etc.

Por este motivo, propongo que a la hora de realizar un análisis de la tecnología para un nuevo proyecto, se tenga en cuenta que existe la posibilidad de que se vaya a necesitar una segunda versión.

En la primera versión de las aplicaciones, ademas de los requerimientos originales, suelen surgir cosas en el camino, se deben realizar cambios en base al feedback de los usuarios y del cliente y muchas veces nos enfrentamos a desafíos por parte de la tecnología que elegimos.

Por este motivo, me parece lógico pensar en dejar los ladrillos macizos para la versión 2.0 del proyecto.

La contraparte, hay que decirlo, es que se debe contar con los recuersos para afrontar un nuevo desarrollo en caso de que, en algún punto, los requerimientos excedan la solución implementada y el proyecto se vuelva insostenible.

Resumiendo, a la hora de iniciar un nuevo proyecto, debemos preguntarnos si vale la pena volverse un puritano y buscar la mejor arquitectura a costa de tener que escribir muchísimas funcionalidades que ya están resueltas por soluciones mas “sucias”, cuando tal vez valga la pena subirnos al tren de esas soluciones rápidas hasta tener un proyecto bien delineado, con características concretas y que cuente con un grado tangible de complejidad, y en ese momento ponernos a pensar en una arquitectura y tecnologías mas serias.

En mi humilde opinión, creo que es un factor válido para considerar a la hora de impartir un nuevo proyecto.

Luego de la lectura, nuestro maestro nos puso en el contexto de la época en la que fue escrito dicho texto; se trataba de una época muy dura en Japón, en la que la mayoría de la gente eran campesinos sin derechos y sin acceso a educación ni a la salud. Por lo tanto, los laicos a los que se refería el texto eran los señores feudales, los cuales poseían grandes riquezas, tenían geishas que los complacían, samurais que mataban por ellos y podían disponer de la vida y el trabajo de las demás personas a discreción.

Lo notable de todo esto fue que gracias a la interpretación del maestro me fue posible encontrarle significado y valor al texto, algo que dificilmente hubiese sucedido si lo hubiese leído por mi cuenta.

Esto me recordó a los textos bíblicos, en los cuales muchas veces sucede algo parecido, y resulta notable la diferencia entre la interpretación personal y la que realizan los entendidos.

La antigüedad de este tipo de textos exige un amplio conocimiento de historia y estar familiarizado con el tema, lo que suele ser un problema a la hora de aprender de estos textos, por lo que termina siendo indispensable la interpretación de un maestro para poder comprenderlos. Y creo que con el tiempo va a resultar cada vez más difícil interpretar textos antiguos, lo cual va a continuar restringiendo el acceso a este tipo de conocimientos.

Por supuesto, la interpretación que hoy realizo mi maestro fue su interpretación personal, tan personal como la que yo podría hacer sobre el mismo texto. Pero gracias a su interpretación, pude encontrarle un valor y una aplicación a la lectura.

También algo que me resulta valioso del contexto histórico, y de su entendimiento, es que revaloriza nuestro presente, ya que permite apreciar las diferencias entre las épocas. Y es que sin el silencio, no se pueden apreciar los sonidos. Sin la quietud, no se puede apreciar el movimiento. Y sin el pasado, no se puede apreciar el presente.

Damas y caballeros de la clase del 97:

Usen protector solar.

Si pudiera ofrecerles un solo consejo para el futuro, sería el uso del protector solar. Sus beneficios a largo plazo se han demostrado científicamente.
El resto de mis consejos sólo están basados en mi experiencia personal. Se los daré ahora.

Disfruta del poder y la belleza de tu juventud. No lo pienses. Nunca entenderás el poder de la belleza de tu juventud hasta que se haya ido. Pero creeme, en 20 años verás atrás a través de las fotos y comprenderás de una forma que no puedes hacerlo ahora cuantas posibilidades se te abrieron y lo fabuloso que te veías. No estás tan gordo como piensas.

No te preocupes por el futuro. O preocúpate, pero debes saber que preocuparse es tan efectivo como tratar de resolver una ecuación de algebra mientras masticas goma de mascar. Los problemas que realmente son importantes en tu vida nunca pasarán por tu mente, tipo aquellos que no se te ocurrirían a las 4 de la tarde de un martes sin nada que hacer.

Haz todos los días algo que te asuste.

Canta.

No trates los sentimientos de los demás de forma irresponsable. No toleres a aquellos que tratan irresponsablemente tus sentimientos.

Relájate.

No pierdas tu tiempo en celos. A veces ganarás, a veces perderás. La carrera es larga y al final tienes que contar contigo mismo.

Recuerda los halagos que recibes. Olvida los insultos. (Si alguien logra tener éxito haciendo esto, que me diga como).

Guarda tus viejas cartas de amor. Deshazte de tus viejos estados de cuenta bancarios. Estírate.

No te sientas culpable si no sabes que hacer con tu vida. Las personas más interesantes que he conocido, no sabían a los 22 que hacer con sus vidas. Algunas de las personas más interesantes de 40 años que conozco aún no saben que hacer.

Consume bastante calcio. Se amable con tus rodillas. Sentirás su falta cuando no te funcionen más.

Tal vez te casarás, tal vez no. Tal vez tendrás hijos, tal vez no.
Tal vez te divorcies a los 40.
Tal vez bailes la danza del pollo en tu 75 aniversario de bodas.
No importa lo que hagas, no te enorgullezcas demasiado, ni te critiques tanto. Tus opciones tienen 50% de ser acertadas, como la de todos los demás.

Disfruta tu cuerpo.
Usalo de todas las formas que puedas.
No temas lo que otras personas piensen.
Es el más grande instrumento que tendrás jamas.

Baila, Aún si el único lugar que tengas para hacerlo sea tu sala.

Lee todas las indicaciones, aún si no las sigues.

No leas revistas de belleza. Sólo te harán sentir feo(a).

Conoce a tus padres. No sabes la falta que te harán cuando ya no estén. Se amable con tus hermanos. Ellos son tu mejor enlace con tu pasado, y las personas que más estarán contigo en el futuro. Entiende que los amigos van y vienen, pero hay un puñado de ellos que debes cuidar con cariño.

Trabaja duro para superar los obstáculos geográficos y los de la vida, porque cuando más viejo te pongas, más necesitarás a las personas que conociste en tu juventud.

Vive en Nueva York alguna vez.
Pero múdate antes que te vuelvas muy duro.

Vive en California del Norte alguna vez.
Pero múdate antes que te vuelvas muy suave.

Viaja.

Acepta que hay ciertas verdades eternas. Los precios van a subir, los políticos son mujeriegos, y tú también vas a envejecer. Y cuando haya sucedido, vas a fantasear que cuando eras joven, los precios eran razonables, los políticos eran nobles y los niños respetaban a sus mayores. Respeta a tus mayores.

No esperes que alguien te ayude. Tal vez tengas un fondo fiduciario. Tal vez tengas un(a) esposo(a) rica. Pero nunca sabrás cuando puede desaparecer.

No arruines mucho tu cabello, o con el tiempo cuando tengas 40, parecerás de 85.

Se cuidadoso con los consejos que recibes. Pero se paciente con los que te los dan. Aconsejar es una forma de nostalgia. Darlos es una manera de pescar el pasado, limpiarlo, esconder las partes feas y reciclarlo por un precio mayor del que vale.

Pero confía en mí con lo del protector solar.

Traducción extraida de Usa protector solar | MaskusPlanet – Comunicación y Marketing

Versión original: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column,0,4054576.column

Videoclip Everybody is free to wear sunscreen