Tech and life calculations

Racismo en la liga de las estrellas

2014-05-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Dicen, con mucha razón, que un equipo de futbol es tan grande como su afición. El vínculo equipo-aficionado es hereditario y geográfico, y por lo tanto, un claro espejo del núcleo de nuestra personalidad y cultura. Es triste ver reflejos de lo peor de la humanidad en grupos como Frente Atlético (sección Fight Firm) durante el partido del Atlético de Madrid contra el Levante.

Selling diamonds

2014-05-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Marco Avellaneda has a short piece on the importance of short selling. If you are not convinced by his arguments, take a look at a market where it is almost imposible to take a short position: diamonds.

Before you calculate something, define what it is!

2014-02-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

Some of my students are now confused because people at Numberphile write an equation without defining what the left hand side is. They congratulate themselves because they get people talking about mathematics and physics. Please stop the nonsense. Mathematics is first of all a language with unequivocal statements. This allows mathematical models, calculations, and predictions to be tested. Anything else is Fugazy.

La cultura libre.

2014-02-03T09:09:00.003-08:00

My english teacher learned spanish to communicate with his neighbors in California. An additional advantage is the ability to get in contact with the free culture , best represented by Gabriel Zaid .

Newtown: gun control and free speech.

2012-12-24T14:42:00.001-08:00

There is always a time to say enough is enough. After the Newtown tragedy, we know that this time has long passed and wishful thinking is not an option anymore. The New York Times started the debate about gun control and I was wondering who would start defending the freedom to bare assault weapons. The first one was David Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute. As it turns out, this institute is a 501(c)(4) organization whose donnors are not public. In fact, they have kept their donnors "private for 21 years and will continue to keep them private". Research funded by anonymous donors should not be legitimized by the NYT.

The only reason for anonymous donnors is that people should be able to express their view without fear of retaliation. I agree, free speech is indispensable. On the other hand, people who express their views without anonymity deserve the prestige that derives from their positions. And as far as I know, there is no right to free prestige in the US.

How much does a place in heaven cost?

2012-08-13T11:59:00.001-07:00

I never had any contact with the Regnum Christi. My family was not wealthy enough to attract their interest, thank God. You can read all the story in the book by Carmen Aristegui http://www.amazon.com/Maciel-historia-criminal-Conversaciones-testimonios/dp/6073101775 . The same story with less details is posted in the Legionaries of Christ website http://www.legionariesofchrist.org/eng/articulos/articulo2.phtml?lc=id-29478_se-238_ca-509_te-902_rx-501&tipo_art=25&csearch= .

Many people dedicated their money, life and children to the Regnum Christi and then realized that their leader was a monster. I can only imagine the pain they are going trough. They were scammed by the people who were supposed to be saints. That being said, there were many terrible practices inside the Regnum Christi that should have been red flags for anybody. As a teenager in 1998, I was advised by couple of adults to stay away from them. The main concern was how they brainwashed wealthy girls to leave their families and dedicate their life to collect donations for the Regnum Christi. Now we know that the main objective of the Regnum Chirsti was to seize the girls inheritance.

The main argument I hear nowadays in favor of keeping the Regnum Christi instead of disolving it is that the people involved have good intentions, even though the leader was not sincere. I disagree. Offering a place in heaven in exchange for money is one of the oldest scams and the Catholic Church speciality. The least you can do after realizing that you were part of the scam is to expose it, so that no other people will fall for it.

If you are ever pressured to do something in order to go to heaven, just reply the way Arturo Jurado did when he wanted to leave the Legionaries of Christ and Maciel threatened him with hell: "I do not care, I am friends with Jesus, I will talk to him when I go there, do not worry. I am leaving, this is my responsibility. God will not bring you to account for what I do. "

Scammers are going BIG.

2012-06-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

There is a new development in the world of con man. Scammers have figured out that people who control a lot of money are as naive as everyone else. In Mexico, they have tried to scam municipalities all over the country. They claim to be an intermediary for the World Bank and promise money for big projects. The catch is that they ask for a collateral payment, to ensure that the contractor will finish the project. Once the collateral payment is made, the money disappears and the scam is complete. In many cases, one of the scammers shows up in the municipality for a meeting and produces false documents. This eliminates the suspicion of a typical email scam.

A slightly different scam was recently performed in Spain, where the scammers went really big. Here the scammers posed as arab investors interested in buying a soccer team in the LFP, the same league where Lionel Messi plays. They negotiated with the team owners and agreed on buying the team, but they needed a collateral payment first. The scammers showed up in a press conference where the announcement was made, received the collateral payment, and disappeared. Here is a picture of the press conference taken from mediotiempo.com .

The calculation scammers have made, at least intuitively, is that the number of municipalities and professional teams around the globe is large enough for the law of large numbers to apply. The reward is big, so they are willing to take the risk of appearing on TV executing the scam.

No thanks to..

2012-06-25T12:09:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I see a "No thanks to" section in the credits webpage of a project: http://evolution.genetics.washington.edu/phylip/credits.html

The Glory and Mathematics.

2012-06-15T10:37:00.002-07:00

Peter Lax in an interview: "I do believe that mathematics has a mysterious unity which really connects seemingly distinct parts, which is one of the glories of mathematics"

Project: Stream HD Euro 2012 games to any of my Apple devices over the internet.

2012-06-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

1. Install Plex server in the pc/mac where all your videos reside (Free).

2. Sign up for MyPlex (Free).

3. Lear how to open ports in your Router.

4. Install Plex Client in the mac where you want to watch the videos

5. Go to Plex Client -> Settings ->MyPlex and fill your account info.

6. Enjoy.

Project: How to record all the EURO 2012 in full HD in my Windows 8 PC?

2012-06-08T09:16:00.003-07:00

Answer: The DVR killer

Ingredients:

1. SiliconDust HDHR3-CC HDHomeRun PRIME CableCARD TV tuners by SiliconDust USA, Inc.

2. COMCAST cable.

3. Windows 8 PC.

No problems at all during the install on a Windows 8 PC using Windows Media Center (WMC). COMCAST provided the CableCard at no cost/monthly fee and I am able to watch/record all the channels I am subscribed to, including full HD and 3D. Finally, set the WMC record schedule for the first Euro 2012 game to record as a series and WMC will record all the games.

Project Bonuses:

With the WMC movie guide I was able to pick, in 5 minutes, 10 great movies that will show in the next two weeks in AMC, TNT etc.. and the record schedule will do its job automatically. My only worry with this baby is that I will need to buy another hard drive for my computer very soon.

On the other hand, I am a geek. So I decided to install the MythTV port in my MacBook Pro running OS X Lion 10.7.4 . This was not easy at all. It took about two hours of work. When I was done, I was able to watch/record all the channels I am subscribed to in my MacBook Pro, including full HD.