Sobre os debates eleitorais 2011

Perante a vacuidade, obscuridade e deturpação que o candidato José Sócrates apresenta no diálogo (?) eleitoral, relembro um texto escrito em Julho de 2008.

Reproduzo uma citação desse texto:

Indexicality of voice means a turning toward the heard speaker with a “physiognomic gaze”: recognizing him/her as him/her in this specific time and place, at this certain position. Voice directs the other to an individual which is to cognize and recognize. The very possibility of understanding uttered words is related to the positioning of the person.

Já chega de nevoeiro artificial, soprado por entranhas rasgadas, sustentadas por uma ignominiosa irresponsabilidade.

Quero debate e não embate.

Google News as of May 9

Google I/O: countdown to the keynote kickoff

In less than 24 hours, we’ll be kicking off Google I/O 2011, our annual developer conference here in San Francisco.

...for the first time in Google I/O history, you’ll be able to join us throughout the two days at I/O Live.

Recorded videos from all sessions across eight product tracks will be available within 24 hours after the conference. Whether you’ll be joining us in San Francisco or from the farthest corner of the world, bookmark www.google.com/io and check back on May 10 at 9:00 a.m. PDT for a fun treat as we count down to 00:00:00:00.

Welcome to the future of video. Please stay a while.

Today, we’re adding around 3,000 new movie titles for rent available to users in the U.S. (more on this in a post later today) that will be accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras. Whether it’s short movie trailers, funny movie parodies or full-length blockbuster films, we encourage you to sit back and settle in to the YouTube movies experience.

In addition to expanding our movie offerings, we’re also bolstering our investment in the content that’s already being viewed by hundred of millions of people on YouTube.

...we’ll ensure that YouTube remains the best place for the world to see and discover rich talent. So stay tuned—there’s much more to come.

Color code your Google Calendar events

If your calendar ends up full of many different types of events (film nights, lunch dates, and doctor appointments, for example), there’s now an easy way to categorize them using colors.

Chrome Beta Update

Chrome 12.0.742.30 includes a number of new features and updates, including:

Hardware accelerated 3D CSS
New Safe Browsing protection against downloading malicious files
Ability to delete Flash cookies from inside Chrome
Launch Apps by name from the Omnibox
Integrated Sync into new settings pages
Improved screen reader support
New warning when hitting Command-Q on Mac
Removal of Google Gears

and

Fancier graphics, safer downloads, and more privacy controls

Today’s beta channel release includes a number of additions, as well as one subtraction!

First, we’ve made Chrome’s graphics snazzier. We’ve finished implementing support for hardware-accelerated 3D CSS, which allows web developers to apply slick 3D effects to web page content using CSS.

Second, we’ve taken Safe Browsing a step further. In addition to protecting you against malware and phishing websites, Chrome now warns you before downloading some types of malicious files.

Third, you now have more control over your online privacy. Many websites store information on your computer using forms of local data storage such as Flash Local Shared Objects (LSOs).

Fourth, we’ve improved screen reader support in Chrome. Many people who are blind or visually impaired use a screen reader, a special type of software that describes the contents of the screen using synthesized speech or braille.

Finally, the subtraction: In this beta release, we’ve removed the Google Gears plug-in, as promised on the Google Gears blog in March. We’re excited about the potential of HTML5 to enable powerful web applications, and we hope that Google Gears rests in peace. - Google Docs offline capable? ;)

[OBSOLETE?] New news or no news? Google Docs Offline suit will roll out soon!

Google Docs will get offline support really soon. So you will be able to have a fully featured office-suite on your computer/laptop you can use offline.

Netflix Plug-in for Chrome and Chrome OS is on the Way

A Netflix plugin for Chrome and Chrome OS is ready to be released. This is based on the reports that are coming in over at the Chromium site.

This upcoming Netflix plugin will enable the streaming of movies via HTML5 technology...

Wolfgang Münchau on Sócrates' Politics

Everyone outside sees it; now, everyone inside the country has to see it! Don't fool yourself! Não te deixes enganar! Não te deixes passar por parvo!


(...) The Greek government played it relatively straight but Portugal’s crisis management has been, and remains, appalling.

José Sócrates, prime minister, has chosen to delay applying for a financial rescue package until the last minute. His announcement last week was a tragi-comic highlight of the crisis. With the country on the brink of financial extinction, he gloated on national television that he had secured a better deal than Ireland and Greece. In addition, he claimed the agreement would not cause much pain. When the details emerged a few days later, we could see that none of this was true. The package contains savage spending cuts, freezes in public sector wages and pensions, tax rises and a forecast of two years’ deep recession.

You cannot run a monetary union with the likes of Mr Sócrates, or with finance ministers who spread rumours about a break-up. Europe’s political elites are afraid to tell a truth that economic historians have known forever: that a monetary union without a political union is simply not viable. This is not a debt crisis. This is a political crisis. The eurozone will soon face the choice between an unimaginable step forward to political union or an equally unimaginable step back. We know Mr Schäuble has contemplated, and rejected, the latter. We also know that he prefers the former. It is time to say so.

Full article here (you have to register or sign in to read the article).

Portugal: Memorando de Entendimento em Português

Na sequência do Memorando divulgado pela Troika relativamente ao acordo com o Governo Português para o empréstimo de 78 mil milhões de euros, os bloggers do Aventar divulgaram uma versão do documento em Português. Notável iniciativa!

Aqui.

What Portuguese should know about Finland

Following the video with the title What Finland and the rest of the world needs to know about Portugal that was made in the name of Portuguese people to the Finnish (see here), some guys in Finland answered with What Portuguese should know about Finland.

Programa Eleitoral do PSD - eleições legislativas de 2011

Texto completo aqui.  

Via Económico. 

Most liveable cities in Canada 2011

MoneySense magazine published their 2011 Canada’s Best Places to Live list.

Photos of the two places that I've already visited.


1º Ottawa-Gatineau

2º Victoria, B.C.

3º Burlington, ON

4º Kingston, ON

5º St. Albert, AB

Full list here.

Expats Portugal Life

What's all about?

Expats Portugal Life is a online magazine that offers a bit of entertainment and information on life in Portugal for English speaking ex-pats.

It has great illustrations and posts about living in Portugal. It's very interesting to see Portugal through expats' lens.

Check it out!

Queens University Researchers Unveiled the PaperPhone

The question is: what's a PaperPhone? :)

According to researchers, it is best described as a flexible iPhone – it does everything a smartphone does, like store books, play music or make phone calls. But its display consists of a 9.5 cm diagonal thin film flexible E Ink display. The flexible form of the display makes it much more portable that any current mobile computer: it will shape with your pocket.

Here's a video:



It looks pretty interesting but I don't see the use for it for the average consumer. But, let's wait for further developments.

Here.

Para o PM Sócrates, com amor

Pois é, o passado foi bom mas o presente dói como a porra!

Para o sr. PM José Sócrates e restantes compatriotas. Ganhem juízo se querem um país melhor!

carta aberta from lucy pepper on Vimeo.

What Finland and the rest of the world needs to know about Portugal

Let me play the devil's advocate, this is all great but it takes more than a successful history to succeed in the future. If Portugal wants to succeed it has to change the world's perception about the country and its people and that implicates changing must of the barriers that are now widely rooted in Portuguese Society.

It's great to have a brilliant past but greater would be to conquer the future. Now. The truth is that Portugal is in great decline, not only economical but mostly societal. The Portuguese are mostly uneducated, poor, frightened of taking risks and illusion driven.

Portugal was great but we aren't now. Can you be great again? Of course! Will we be great again? No one knows!

We, Portuguese, need really to change and for that to happen society needs to walk a different trail. We need real change. Not rhetorical.

Resultados do Inquérito sobre o Panorama Nacional Tecnológico

Interessante relatório.

Destaco os 87% que afirmaram que não é fácil ser empreendedor em Portugal.

Possíveis razões:

- Começar é muito difícil. Não há um sistema de incentivos (impostos) adequado.
- Há poucas oportunidades de obter pequenos financiamentos para dar os primeiros passos: Seed capital e VC.
- A cultura de risco é fraca e deve ser ensinada nas Universidades. Falhar ou errar é culturalmente considerado mau e deixa sequelas na nossa sociedade.

Aqui.

Explicação do resultado no PS nas últimas sondagens

De acordo Carlos Mareco @cmmareco no twitter

Ontem no site da RTP: "Cerca de 30% dos portugueses sofrem de perturbações mentais". Sondagem divulgada: "Sócrates recolhe 30% dos votos"

Está tudo explicado. LOL

Avaliação Externa da Escola Secundária com 3º ciclo Júlio Dinis - Ovar

Avaliação

- Resultados: Muito bom
- Prestação do serviço educativo: Muito bom
- Organização e gestão escolar: Muito bom
- Liderança: Muito bom
- Capacidade de auto-regulação e melhoria da escola: Muito bom

Excelentes resultados!

Relatório completo aqui.

Graduate with Google Apps: social 2.0+

Want to know what's Social 2.0+?

Take a look!

Utilização de formatos electrónicos livres na administração pública

Ora aqui está uma boa iniciativa do Bloco de Esquerda aprovada pelo Parlamento Português.

O projecto de lei designa-se "Utilização de formatos electrónicos livres na administração pública" e pode ser lido aqui.

Mais informação:

DECRETO N.º 98/XI ESTABELECE A ADOPÇÃO DE NORMAS ABERTAS NOS SISTEMAS INFORMÁTICOS DO ESTADO

A Assembleia da República decreta, nos termos da alínea c) do artigo 161.º da Constituição, o seguinte:

Artigo 1.º Objecto

A presente lei estabelece a adopção de normas abertas para a informação em suporte digital na Administração Pública, promovendo a liberdade tecnológica dos cidadãos e organizações e a interoperabilidade dos sistemas informáticos do Estado. (podiam ter acrescentado a utilização de sistemas operativos livres ou gratuitos como é o caso de algumas distribuições Linux. Acresceria, nesse caso, uma poupança muito significativa).

Artigo 2.º Âmbito de aplicação

A presente lei aplica-se a:

a) Órgãos de soberania; b) Serviços da Administração Pública central, incluindo institutos públicos e serviços desconcentrados do Estado; c) Serviços da Administração Pública regional; d) Sector empresarial do Estado.

Bom trabalho! Resta saber se a lei será cumprida. Isso já é outra história.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Hands On

Via Revolução Digital.

The Mom Song with lyrics

Hahahaha :)



Obrigado pelo link, Cristina!

Ulrich está agradecido a quem fez cair o Governo

A verdade é que muita gente não suporta o que é normal para uma grande parte do eleitorado.

"Estou agradecido a todos os que fizeram com que o Governo caísse e o PEC IV fosse chumbado"

"Foi comovente, ainda ontem, ver na televisão o Dr. Silva Pereira a pedir aos partidos da oposição para defender o memorando de entendimento, quando este tem pouco a ver com as ideias que levaram o Dr. Silva Pereira e Eng. José Sócrates ao poder e são muito mais próximos do que o PSD e PP defendem. Se agora estão contentes com estas medidas, melhor"

"Não me lembro de ter estado numa reunião em que estivesse o governo e o Banco de Portugal, exceptuando esta última, em que o ministro disse que com ele Portugal não entraria em 'default', mas alguém lhe disse, que não eu, que isso não chegava, que era preciso pedir ajuda externa amanhã ou de preferência hoje"

Here.

iPad Study and Academic Experience Enhancement

I have serious doubts that the iPad (and other computer devices) can be used as a fundamental instrument to promote better learning of children and young adults but I think that fully integration with learning contents can reduce the negative aspects that technology can have when disengaged from the learning process.

For those who live in Portugal and remember the introduction of computers in schools, we know that they ended up by creating no stimulus for children learning processes because not enough attention was given to content integration. Instead, they were "thrown" to schools by politicians whose main goal was to rise high the flag of education without considering scientific research on the subject.

Some remarks:

Consensus is the integration of the iPad can enhance a student’s academic experience and have a positive impact for faculty as well. We used the iPad in every aspect of our course. The most important consideration is the device must be truly integrated. Simply distributing the device without evaluation of how the course might be modified for its use limits the impact.

The description of results made by the authors seem very fragile but I don't know the specifics of the program or its implementation.

The iPad pilot program in Oklahoma State University



From here.

Collaboration in Schools for best Mental Health Programs

Schools Need Collaboration, Not Packaged Solutions, for Best Mental Health Programs

Some highlights:

many schools lack the capacity to access and fully adopt (...) programs.


the gap between research and practice in school mental health remains the primary barrier to helping schools meet the growing mental health needs of their students.


researchers have not given enough consideration to the unique context of schools, leaving many schools unable to capitalize on new ideas and scientific evidence


Too often researchers are ready with the solution before they really know what the problem is. What schools really need is help sorting through everything they're already doing to figure out what's working and what's not, and that can be difficult.


We need to start by asking schools and communities what they need from science and then partner with them to help them evaluate their innovative home-grown solutions and identify, implement, and sustain new programs

Here.

Portugal: Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality

Here.

Via Económico.

Sócrates, o plano da troika e o meu futuro

Depois de ouvir a apresentaçao do PM demissionário resolvi tomar as seguintes decisões:

- vou comprar um carro novo;
- vou comprar roupa nova;
- vou marcar umas férias de 1 mês para os EUA;
- vou jantar fora hoje, amanhã e depois.

...ou não.

Todos nós sabemos que o lado brilhante da lua esconde um lado menos iluminado. Hoje e amanhã iremos começar a conhecer o lado que menos interessa ao PM.

Mas, mais uma vez, Sócrates quis fazer o que melhor sabe: associar a valoração daquilo que é positivo à sua imagem, deixando o negativo para colar na fronte de outrém. Muita manipulação quando haveria de existir muita responsabilidade.

O PM poderá renascer num país em que toda a gente é cega; num país de gente sábia definharia perante o escrutínio das suas políticas e das suas práticas.

Portugal e o valor do bailout: mais 20 euros

No seguimento do texto que escrevi, deixo-vos com a análise de várias fontes, num trabalho feito por Neil Hume do Financial Times.

The relatively large size of the package is probably intended chiefly to generate a substantial buffer to ensure that programme can withstand potentially adverse developments.

Pois...

Google Chrome ad: It Gets Better

A It Gets Better project video - it's Google hope that this movement will give hope to gay individuals.

Google I/O 2011 Android app by Google

App description

The official Google I/O 2011 conference application.

This application is a great resource for Google I/O 2011 conference goers.

* Look at the schedule
* Look through detailed session and speaker info
* Look through info about companies in the Developer Sandbox
* Star sessions and Sandbox companies
* Get the current buzz on I/O via real time search stream
* Guide yourself using the conference map
* Create and manage notes using Catch

Download from the Android Market.

Via TheChromeSource

Google Chrome ad: Dear Sophie

Via Chrome Story

Portugal, Irlanda, Governo Português e 20 euros

Conhecida a premissa do PM demissionário José Sócrates, Portugal estava a trilhar um caminho perfeitamente normal de consolidação das finanças públicas e o chumbo do PEC IV veio impedir que esse movimento continuasse.


Notícia de hoje: Valor total do apoio é de 78 mil milhões de euros 


Bem, se estava tudo a correr bem (quem não se lembra do superavit?) porque motivo o estado Português precisará de um montante superior quase igual àquele que foi emprestado à Irlanda (85 mil milhões de euros), que teve um tsunami de perdas no seu sistema financeiro e uma bolha imobiliária enorme?


Portugal teve dois casos (BPN e BPP) de gravidade média no que se refere à injecção de capitais públicos para prevenir situações mais gravosas. Para além disso, quais foram os outros factos anormais?


Portanto, como é possível que o valor do financiamento a Portugal seja de 78 mil milhões de euros se estava tudo bem? 


Vejamos alguns dados comparativos da Irlanda e Portugal para percebermos as características dos dois países (info) e as possíveis relações com a dimensão das suas economias:

Irlanda 
Força de trabalho: 2.15 milhões (2010)
PIB: 208.3 mil milhões de dólares (2010)
PIB per capita: 37600 dólares (2010)

Portugal
Força de trabalho: 5.57 milhões (2010)

PIB: 223.7 mil milhões de dólares (2010)

PIB per capita: 23000 dólares (2010)

Apesar da Irlanda ter menos de metade da força de trabalho de Portugal, apresenta um PIB apenas inferior em 15 mil milhões. O seu PIB per capita é, por isso, muito superior ao Português, em quase 14 mil $ por habitante. 

Portanto, mais uma vez, se a Irlanda, assolada por perdas terríveis no sistema financeiro e uma bolha imobiliário, teve um financiamento de cerca de 85 mil milhões de euros, como é possível que o estado Português, que apenas teve dois casos relevantes e não teve nenhuma crise imobiliária, tenha que ser financiado com 78 mil milhões?

Isto, obviamente, no contexto da premissa do governo. Estava mesmo tudo bem? 


Quem é que querem enganar? Mais importante, quem é que ainda se quer deixar enganar? Alguém?

Google Ranks Highest on Corporate Reputation

Here.

Canada's Elections 2011 Results

Conservatives won 167 seats of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, up from 143 before their defeat in a no-confidence motion in late March that triggered the election. The Conservatives have ruled as a minority government since February 2006.

NDP won 102 seats, the Liberals 34 and the Green Party won its first ever seat. Bloc Québécois lost almost all but 4 seats of its 47 seats.

So, nothing new here.

Now, Mr. Harper, deal with the deficit and the economy.

More here.

Via Financial Times

Portugal must grow its way out of trouble by Pedro Passos Coelho

Para aqueles que não têm registo no FT, transcrevo para aqui o texto.

On June 5, Portugal holds parliamentary elections that will shape its future for years to come. If the country is to recover from its current financial crisis, these elections will have to return a government that can deliver reform and rebuild market confidence.

Recent events highlight just how crucial the need for change has become. On April 6, Portugal was forced to seek an estimated €80bn in financial aid from the European Union. This was the culmination of a long-term loss of market confidence in the government’s ability to improve external competitiveness, restore public and banking sector creditworthiness and get the economy growing again.

Turning this situation around is difficult but not impossible, if Portugal focuses its energy on growth. The country’s problems have built up over a number of years as it spent too much, and earned too little, running annual current account and budget deficits often close to 10 per cent of gross domestic product. The crucial difference with other eurozone countries is that macroeconomic imbalances were underpinned by a decade of meagre growth. The disappearance of private savings created a vicious circle between public and external debt.

Reducing costs through an austerity programme is urgently necessary. The most effective, and fairest, way to achieve this is through a leaner and more efficient public sector. Portugal needs to restructure general government, state-owned enterprises and public-private partnerships and concessions that do not provide value for money and are not economically productive. The three previous government austerity packages (not implemented as agreed) and the fourth (unanimously rejected by parliament) were focused too much on austerity for ordinary citizens, rather than reducing the size of the state.

Raising revenues is also critical, although only in the context of enabling growth. A simple example illustrates this point. Two weeks ago Portugal released first-quarter budget figures, which showed a narrowing deficit that was mostly due to earlier tax rises. Raising the tax take on the existing revenue base – rather than seeing tax income grow as a function of GDP growth – is not a sustainable strategy in the long term.

Which leads us back to growth. Fiscal consolidation, while necessary, is not enough to deliver long-term budget stability and debt reduction. In the medium to long term, economic growth is the only solution to Portugal’s fiscal problems.

The financial assistance package being negotiated with the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank is a vital, if depressing, step. Portugal’s cost of borrowing, which stood at over 8 per cent on five-year bonds the day before the vote on the latest austerity package, and has since risen to more than 11 per cent, was unsustainable. The assistance package is necessary to provide the liquidity the country needs to meet short-term funding requirements.

However, it is only a short-term measure that buys some time. The money is still owed, and must be paid back. This is why growth is all. It will be achieved by lowering costs in the short-run and bringing about productivity gains in the long-run; and it must be more export-driven. This means strengthening existing export markets and expanding to new ones, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The country needs a productivity boost from lower labour and other regulated costs, such as energy, that have a direct impact on the tradable sector; and structural reform has to lead to a more qualified labour force, greater accountability and effective conflict resolution.

Underlying all of this is the matter of transparency. Markets rely on confidence and certainty, and one reason investors have been pricing in a bail-out for Portugal since 2010 has been the lack of both in budget figures. These fears have been borne out with the budget deficit twice revised upwards in recent months.

The next government has to be committed to complete transparency on the real budgetary and contingent debt situation. This is essential to ensure effective fiscal consolidation and guarantee that Portugal will not remain reliant on financial assistance from abroad. The next prime minister will need to have the determination to bring about change and the willingness to reach out across ideological divides that will allow Portugal to deliver growth while honouring its international debt commitments.

Texto: Pedro Passos Coelho, líder do PSD
Jornal: Financial Times
02/05/2011

The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats - Online Exhibition

Presented by The National Library of Ireland.

Here.

Chrome OS File Management Improvements and more

Here are some screenshots of improvements made in the last Chrome (ok, Chromium.. :D) OS build:

File Manager open as a new tab (you should use CTRL+O to open files)

New folder name pop up

Folder "Test" created

You have to hit DEL if you want to delete the file

Folder "external storage" (note the curious date...)

Folders inside "external storage"

EFI boot files

Login screen when locked

The screensaver

Chrome OS is building up to be an amazing OS! I'm very convinced that Chrome OS will mark the begining of a new phase in operating systems.

And it's only Chrome OS v1.0. The party is just starting!  

A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I and II

Part 1

Watch it on Academic Earth

Part 2

Watch it on Academic Earth

Pensamento simples para ti, Portugal

É muito difícil teres o estado social da Suécia e a economia das Seychelles. A economia sueca é forte, a população é educada e os políticos são competentes e responsáveis.

Dizem que devemos lutar pelo teu Estado Social. Concordo. Mas concordo ainda mais com a premissa de que devemos lutar por um melhor Estado e por uma economia dinâmica e pujante.

Tu bem sabes que precisas de energia para sobreviver. Diz lá, não achas que estás muito gordo? Não achas que abafas a economia com o teu peso desmesurado? Precisas de ganhar mais músculo e resistência.

Sabes, não conheço nenhum Estado que não seja iminentemente social. Os EUA, esses neoliberais loucos (opinião de alguns..), gastam 16% do PIB com saúde. Será que não têm Estado Social? Pois é, isto é uma grande confusão! O assunto não é tão simples como querem fazer parecer.

Deves ser melhor e adequado à economia que te alimenta. Melhor.

Chrome OS File Management Improvements

Looks like the Chrome team has given some love to the file management feature in Chrome OS. Now, if you hit the Print Screen key, you'll get a screenshot with detailed information inside a Screenshot folder that in turn is in the File Shelf.

You can also create a new folder.

Hit CTRL + O to see these improvements.

Things are putting up quite nicely for Google's I/O.

President Obama mocks Trump at the Annual White House Correspondents Dinner

This is very funny material! President Obama has a pretty good sense of humor!

Ubuntu 11.04 rocks

I started using Ubuntu back in 2007. At that time I was already starting to realize that Microsoft's OS was too slow, unreliable and too demanding. You know, all that anti virus scans, defragmentation, optimization, registry erros check up, were and ARE, even with Windows 7, too time consuming and frustrating.

But, as many others, I had to rely on specific Microsoft Windows compatible software. But now, with emergence of webapps like Google Docs and the refinement of Ubuntu OS, it's alot easier to use Ubuntu exclusively. Unfortunately, I'm not yet on that point because I have some vocational tests software that are only compatible with Windows.

But now, with Ubuntu 11.04 and the Unity desktop, the user experience reached a new level. A positive one. In terms of functionality, design and hardware requirements, Ubuntu rocks when compared to Windows 7 or Apple's OSX Lion. Yes, I truly think that it is alot better than its competitors!

Some aspects of Ubuntu 11.04:

• it's very FAST and secure;
• it has an App Store with LOTS of applications ;
• it's reliable; 
• it gets better with time;
• it's BEAUTIFUL (lovely fonts, backgrounds, and themes);
• has a new and awesome interface - Unity; 
• it's free, zero euros or dollars.

Want to know more about Unity and Ubuntu 11.04? Visit Ubuntu's website of reference, the holy grail of Ubuntu fans, OMG!Ubuntu!

What are you waiting for?

Enjoy!

A billionaire bachelor's playground by 60 minutes

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives "60 Minutes" a tour of his estate, yacht, space rocket, and, yes - his very own submarine.



Via CBSNews

Oh! the pure flavor of Google!

This was something that I've been eagerly waiting for! I wanted to get the new Google blue bar (black bar in Gmail) and all I got was the old classic homepage and bar.

But there's workaround. Try google.com/ncr (ncr=no country redirect) and you'll get "the pure flavor of Google that has all the new features and it's not biased towards the pages from a certain country". (here)

Now, I get the black bar in Gmail

and the blue bar in G Docs, for example

You can also use http://www.google.com/ncr as your homepage. Works great!

Talk with Google Chrome

Android is not the only piece of software that you can talk to. Try talking to Google Translate in Chrome. It only works when translating words or phrases from English.

All you need is a microphone.

If you don't have Google Chrome, click here.

Samsung Galaxy S II Voice Talk

It works great with the English language but not as well with Portuguese. To be more precise, Brazilian Portuguese. Portuguese isn't available yet for Voice Talk.

Google Mountain View

List of acquisitions by Google

It all started in 2011 and it never stopped. There are now 95 acquisitions listed.

The first was Deja in February 12, 2001 and the last was TalkBin in April 26, 2011.

Most of the acquisitions were made to use as a Google product or to integrated in one or several.

Take the example of Google Docs:

• April 17, 2007 Tonic Systems - Presentation program

• June 19, 2007 Zenter - Presentation program

• December 4, 2009 AppJet (EtherPad) - Collaborative real-time editor

• March 5, 2010 DocVerse - Microsoft Office files sharing site

Full list of acquisitions here.

Slideshow feature shows up in Chrome OS File Management

File management in Chrome OS has seen some improvements in the past weeks. As of this moment, it has, for example, a File Shelf and File Previews. Today I noticed something that I haven't seen before. All happened after saving picture from the web.

So, after saving a picture to the File Shelf, I double clicked it in the notification panel and...a Slideshow screen showed up in a new tab! Uouu! This is new! At least for me!

It seems that users will be able to use the Chrome Browser and the Slideshow tab to see their locally saved pictures (saved in a ssd hard disk and maybe in external drives as well).

To try this Slideshow feature, all you have to do is type "chrome://slideshow". It doesn't work in Chrome, just in Chrome OS. I used Hexxeh's ChromiumOS Vanilla Nightly Builds of April 28.

We will probably have more information on this and all the other features of Chrome OS in Google I/O 2011 on May 10-11.

Decentralization in Public Education

Decentralization is not created by passing a law. Rather it must be built by overcoming a series of challenges at the center and the periphery by, for example, changing long established behaviours and attitudes, developing new skills, convincing people in the center who enjoy exercising power to give it up, permitting and sometimes encouraging people to take creative risks, promoting and rewarding local initiatives, and maintaining continuity with the decentralization reform even as governments change.

Hanson (1997)

No, I know it looks like the author was writing about portuguese public education but no. It's just plain wisdom.

Compared brain activation in non impared and dyslexic readers

Relative increase in activation during phonologic compared with orthographic coding in different brain regions in NI and DYS readers.

Significant differences in brain activation patterns between DYS and NI readers were found. Those differences emerge during tasks that make progressive demands on phonologic analysis. These findings relate the cognitive/behavioral deficit characterizing DYS readers to anomalous activation patterns in both posterior and anterior brain regions.

From Functional disruption in the organization of the brain for reading in  dyslexia

Finalmente um Governador do Banco de Portugal

Felizmente e finalmente: temos um bom Governador do Banco de Portugal. Não é preciso dizer mais nada.

Video.

Google Docs app for Android

Sweet!

Via Docs Blog

Google Docs App.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Review

Here's another positive review by Android Central. This device looks very promising!

So, which one would you buy? A Chrome OS Notebook or the Asus Eee Pad Transformer?

You got some thinking to do!

Ubuntu font is now in Google Docs

For those who like the Ubuntu font, you can now use it in Google Docs.

More about the Ubuntu Font Family here.

Via OMG!Ubuntu!

Brain maturation

7 second video that shows brian maturation through MRI measurements of children from age 4-21 years. The blue colors indicate greater maturity.

Brain with Alzheimer's Disease

From Geropsychology Central, website that has a huge and diversified set of resources on Geriatric Psychology.

Calming Technology

I stumbled upon a really intriguing and interesting article with the title Calming Technology from four Stanford University Researchers.

What's Calming Technology?

Calming technologies are interactive systems that induce cognitive, physiological, or emotional states of calm. Calming attributes can be added to existing technologies or such system can be developed for this purpose only.

Read the article here.

Research blog of the calming technology working group at Stanford University

A fábula de Sócrates e a economia de Portugal

O PM Sócrates e os seus acólitos podem dizer o que quiserem, que a crise internacional foi a maior dos últimos 80 anos (agora diz-se 100 anos..), que o chumbo do PEC IV é que levou o país para o abismo ou que tudo estaria a correr sobre rodas se não tivesse ocorrido essa malvada crise.

Entre muitos esquecimentos, incluindo a péssima abordagem à crise internacional, Sócrates esquece-se da objectividade dos números.

Eis os valores no conjunto de países da OCE

Resultados menos maus apenas na taxa de crescimento da produtividade laboral. Repito, "taxa de crescimento". Não estamos a falar do valor absoluto da produtividade, i.e., da relação entre a produção e os factores de produção utilizados.

Gráficos retirado do Desmitos

The World's Biggest Public Companies

Some company ranks:

1- JPMorgan Chase

47- Apple

50- Microsoft

120 - Google

Note that the screen for the biggest companies was done around four metrics; sales, profits, assets and market value. The market value calculation is as of March 11 closing prices, including all common shares outstanding.

The position on the list is, therefore, the result of a combination of metrics.

Here

Google Inside Out

Steven Levy, respected journalist and author of "In the Plex," reveals fascinating untold stories about one of the most massively influential companies in history.

Speaker: Steven Levy, Senior Writer, Wired Magazine
Moderator: Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, AllThingsD.com



Via All Things Digital.

Bakhtin's Notion of Existence

Existence is the unique and unified event of being.

Bakhtin in Dialogism by Michael Holquist

Improvements in Google Docs: better upload of files

Several improvements were announced today regarding folder upload, documents list integration, and drag-and-drop upload.

Some highlights:

The existing folder structure is preserved on upload which means that folders within folders will also upload and become collections within collections.

When you upload files via the new drop-down menu, a window will pop up in the bottom right of your documents list and show upload progress.

You’ll also be able to drag-and-drop one or more files directly into your documents list to initiate an upload. You can even drop files directly into a collection.

And

If you hit your storage limit, the upload will return an error and you’ll need to delete files or purchase additional storage for Google Docs for $0.02 per GB per month ($0.25 per GB per year)

This means that you can buy additional storage for Docs and not necessarily for the bundle Gmail, Picasa Web Albums, and Google Docs? That would be great but doesn't look so.

The $0.25 per GB per year are part of the 20 GB for $5.00 per year or the 200 GB for $50.00 per year plans.

All in all, these are good news for those that are now moving their office work to G Docs or thinking doing it. Google keeps preparing the ground for new users to join their cloud platform and providing a swift transition to Chrome OS.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder brain maturation

See it here.

One word: Wow!

That's a pretty substantial difference in brain maturation!

Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

The Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders contains medical articles on mental disorders, conditions and chemical elements. Over 150 mental disorders are organized alphabetically.

You can find, for example, information about Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or Denial, which has been widely observed in Portugal's Prime Minister behaviors. :P

An open letter to Mr. Richard Stallman

For those of you who don't know Mr. Stallman, whe's the Free Software Foundation Guru and Evangelist and founder of GNU. Radical to some, righteous activist to others.

Being a controversial figure, he has always attracted heated discussions. This open letter is justified by that ride between the two extremes and the right point between them, where wisdom lives.

I mostly agree with the points made on this letter.

Enjoy!

Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

Print Preview is back in Google Docs but not in Chrome

Yes, weird but true. Following my post on Where did Print Preview in Google Docs go?, I'm glad to report that it is back again! But wait! Only when using Firefox.

Do you have an explanation for this, Google? Do you want me to rely only on Firefox? Anyone?

UPDATE 25th 04:

1- Chrome supports native printing and Firefox doesn't;
2- Print Preview in Chrome Beta doesn't work at all if you have "print preview" enabled in about:flags; If you disable that option you'll get the usual Windows Print pop up. No print preview available;
3- The same happens in Google Canary if "native print preview" is disabled;
4- Print Preview shows up in Canary if "native print preview" is enabled. The text formatting looks horrible but it works;
5- Still, no Print Preview in Chrome Beta.
6- I need it. :P

Keynesianism’s systemic failure

Dedicated to Mr Sócrates and other left wing portuguese party leaders. Get real!

Peter Foster: Keynesianism’s systemic failure

O farol da tolerância de ponto e o horizonte negro da censura

No seguimento deste post, eis a confirmação de como alguns (os Outros...) nos vêem lá fora.

Portugal on holiday amid bail-out talks (é preciso fazer sign in para ler o artigo)

Não é preciso ser um génio para perceber que medidas aparentemente insignificantes (para o Governo) como a tolerância de ponto podem ter um impacto tremendo na imagem que os outros têm de Portugal. Vamos ser claros. No nosso dia a dia é muito fácil observarmos alguém e julgarmos que é preguiçoso, vive acima das suas possibilidades ou, por exemplo, quer trabalhar o menos possível. É muito fácil, portanto, criarmos uma primeira impressão negativa sobre um país mas mais relevante ainda é o conhecimento de que é muito fácil ficar com uma má impressão e extremamente difícil mudar essa consideração novamente para uma boa impressão. Está estudado. É básico.

Portanto, seria assim tão difícil perceber que todas medidas tomadas pelo Governo, por mais insignificantes que sejam, neste contexto específico, sejam alvo de escrutínio intenso? Não será fácil perceber que Portugal está dependente do dinheiro dos outros e que isso deve impedir todos os comportamentos laxistas?

E não venham cá com as tretas da soberania! Se a soberania é assim tão importante, então tivessem pensado nisso antes!

Até a minha gata mais maluca tem vergonha do povo

Eis a reacção da minha gata aos resultados das últimas sondagens divulgadas:

Diipo - educational 2.0 social network for your class

As on their website,

Diipo connects you the teacher with your students by making it easy to communicate with your class. Diipo also connects you with other educators and your class with other classes.

I just tried it and I found it to very complicated to use. I doubt that the students that I know would be motivated to use this platform. Nonetheless, if you are an educator you might want to give it a try.

Security and Data Protection in a Google Data Center

Via thechromesource

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Yes, sugar. The University of California and Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, presents an educational documentary about the bitterness of sugar and "explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin".

High levels of sugar in the blood are a cause of several diseases like Diabetes, a pandemic illness of the 21st century. Just for you to get a picture of how common it is in the population, the American Diabetes Association states that 8.3% of population of US has diabetes. That's a staggering number!



Gary Taubes, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation independent investigator in health policy and the author of “Why We Get Fat”, who the article "Is Sugar Toxic?" on the NYTimes, shares the same worries of Mr Lusting if not the same conclusion. It's a long read but it's worthwhile.

A hipocrisia do Governo PS não tem limites

Portugal está falido;

Portugal está a negociar com a troika (BCE, FMI e CE) um plano de ajuda financeira;

Portugal vai ser ajudado com > 80 mil milhões de euros;

Portugal precisa de ajuda; a troika não;

E o inefável Ministro da Presidência critica Passos Coelho por este ter criticado a tolerância de ponto, acusando-o de oportunismo político.

Mas está tudo doido? O que é isto? E as sondagens ainda indicam uma tendência de subida do PS? Quem são os dementes que não percebem? Quem é que precisa de um desenho?

Será preciso dizer mais alguma coisa?

Samsung GALAXY S II Radical Unboxing

Hahahahah

Rapportive - Chrome Extension

Rapportive integrates your Gmail (or Google Apps mail) account with social network profiles to give you valuable context about the people you’re communicating with.

Via ChromeAdvisor

Where did Print Preview in Google Docs go?

Once again: where did Print Preview in Google Docs go? I don't know...

According to Google's Community Manager @Google Docs Teresa Wu, "it's still there, just go straight to Print!". Hum...Where? She says "preview should be an option in your computer's native print window that pops up"...Still...What pop up? I don't get that!

Curiously, if I click Print nothing happens and if a choose Print Settings without including page numbers, nothing happens either; BUT if you choose to include page numbers, THEN a new tab will open the document's Print Preview. Confused?

But wait, there's more! For a newbie, how intuitive is to Print a pdf file without having any option to do it? It isn't! You will have to right click your document and select "Print".

Google knows better!

O erotismo dos pescadores

Eis um bom exemplo da criatividade dos pescadores da Torreira.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Review

Full review here

Why The Decline In World Oil Supply Will Be Faster Than Anyone Expects

Gail Tverberg on why you should be very worried about peak oil and related decline in oil supply.

Here.

Get started with the Chrome Notebook

To all of you that don't know what's a Chrome Notebook and which are differences compared with regular Windows and Mac computers, here's a very simple, intuitive and well designed presentation of the upcoming Chrome Notebook.

Here

Chrome notebooks in late June, early July

According to Neowin, Chrome notebooks are arriving this Summer. This information is not new and it was widely known that some Chrome event would happen during Google’s I/O developer conference being held May 10-11. This is what's new:

Google plans to make the notebooks available for $10-$20 a month per user, and will provide hardware refreshes as they are released as part of the package, and will replace faulty hardware for the life of the subscription. On top of this, Google will make the devices available for a one time payment as a normal retailer would, but is likely to not distribute the devices directly. Instead, the company will distribute them in a fashion similar to the way Android is distributed.

I'm curious about the details around this allegedly distribution model or "ecosystem" around Chrome notebooks.

Retrato de Portugal

A Pordata lançou hoje o ebook “Retrato de Portugal”, que faculta cerca de 130 indicadores sobre o país.

Aqui.

Boas leituras!

Friendship is an expression of love

Grooveshark wants to help Japan

Purchase 1 year subscription of Grooveshark Anywhere for 20$ and all the proceeds will go to help Japan.

Here.

Do you want to help Japan? Buy some songs!

Hurry up! 1 day left!

Songs of Love for Japan

Here

Algo que não sabe sobre Nobre - Luís Osório

O seguinte texto de Luís Osório é um bom exemplo de que a realidade que nos dão em paletes através da comunicação social é uma mera colecção de artefactos.

"Fernando Nobre jantou em casa de Mário Soares com José Sócrates; e este disse-lhe que metade dos seus ministros tinham votado nele.
Fernando Nobre aceitou ser cabeça de lista do PSD por Lisboa. Passos Coelho, por telefone, três dias antes do anúncio público, fez-lhe o convite e lançou-lhe o desafio de ser presidente da Assembleia da República. Esta era a novidade em relação a todas as conversas anteriores: «O senhor, depois das presidenciais, tem o desafio de contribuir para o país. Estamos a um passo do precipício e Portugal precisa de pessoas independentes. O PSD oferece-lhe o segundo lugar na hierarquia do Estado e não lhe pedirá nada em troca quando lá chegar».

O presidente da AMI, na fronteira entre o Sri Lanka e a Índia, vacilou e pediu para pensar. Passos Coelho concordou, desde que a resposta não se prolongasse para além do passado sábado. E assim foi.

Muito poucos sabiam, mas mesmo assim houve fugas de informação. Dois jornalistas, um do I e outro do Diário de Notícias, telefonaram-me para confirmar a notícia de que Nobre fora convidado para ser cabeça de lista por Lisboa. Sobre a presidência da Assembleia da República nada me perguntaram. Disse-lhes que nada sabia sobre listas.

Para juntar ao processo, proponho algumas notas desapaixonadas de quem, sendo muito amigo de Fernando Nobre - e tendo tido uma participação activa na campanha presidencial - nada teve que ver com este processo de decisão.

Tanto o PSD como o PS lhe fizeram convites e tentaram o seu apoio. Mas há duas diferenças essenciais que fizeram Nobre escutar o líder social-democrata e menosprezar o que lhe foram dizendo do lado socialista: por um lado, o seu convencimento de que o ciclo socialista chegou ao fim e é o responsável por um ambiente irrespirável; por outro lado, o facto de o PS apenas se ter aproximado de si depois dos 14% que obteve nas eleições.

Pedro Passos Coelho, amigo de Artur Pereira (director de campanha de Nobre) e admirador do percurso e da mensagem de cidadania do médico, procurou várias vezes escutar a sua opinião. Ao contrário de muitos, nunca procurou menosprezar ou desvalorizar a sua candidatura, mesmo quando as sondagens lhe davam 3 e 4 por cento.

A política também se faz disto - e Nobre nunca poderia aceitar o convite de um partido que considera esgotado e que só mostrou consideração por si depois dos 600 mil votos conseguidos em Janeiro.

Já é público o jantar de Fernando Nobre com Sócrates em casa de Mário Soares. Aconteceu mesmo, é verdade. Nesse jantar, o primeiro-ministro não lhe fez qualquer convite formal: apenas mostrou surpresa pelo resultado e confessou-lhe que metade dos seus ministros votara nele. Já Soares aconselhou calma e silêncio: não era tempo para gastar palavras que se esfumavam na fogueira mediática.

Apesar destes contactos, Fernando Nobre está magoado com Mário Soares. Acredito que não tenha razão para essa mágoa - mas, neste processo, Nobre nunca escondeu a sua irritação pelas constantes associações da sua candidatura ao desejo de vingança de Soares perante Alegre.

E, quando tentou associar o proveito à fama, solicitando a Soares o seu apoio formal (ou a sua influência para chegar a possíveis financiadores da campanha), o ex-Presidente da República pediu-lhe sempre para esperar.

Quanto ao dinheiro, facilitou de facto contactos - que, no final, garantiram à candidatura uma soma irrisória.

As duas pessoas que mais influência tiveram no avanço de Fernando Nobre - ou, pelo menos, que detonaram uma série de reuniões marcadas pelo fundador da AMI - foram Miguel Sousa Tavares e Rui Moreira. Os dois, amigos próximos, desafiaram Nobre para ser candidato à Presidência da República e disponibilizaram-se totalmente para o apoiar no que fosse preciso. Miguel era visita de casa de Fernando Nobre - e na apresentação da sua candidatura, no Padrão dos Descobrimentos, teve o exclusivo da primeira entrevista para a SIC. Esse é o facto e a origem da candidatura.

Grande parte da animosidade do agora candidato putativo a presidente da Assembleia da República tem a ver com as promessas que lhe foram sendo feitas.

Ao apresentar-se como candidato, vários foram os que apareceram à direita e à esquerda. Que os financiamentos eram simples, que ele não tinha de se preocupar - enfim, o habitual. Mas, quando começou a deixar de ter espaço na comunicação social e as sondagens desceram dos cinco por cento, banqueiros, empresários, gestores, políticos e amigos deixaram de atender os telefones. Nobre ficou sozinho. Deu a casa e tudo o resto como aval: um mau resultado equivaleria ao pagamento de dívidas durante o resto da vida.

Só uma pessoa nunca deixou de lhe atender o telefone. Alguém que, sendo banqueiro, lhe confessou que isso era o mínimo que poderia fazer por alguém com o seu percurso de vida. Sem ele, a campanha não teria ido até ao fim; e, se fosse, o resultado teria sido provavelmente catastrófico. Deixo-lhe o desafio de adivinhar o seu nome.

O que quero dizer com isto? Que estou a tomar partido e a fazer a defesa de Fernando Nobre? Não, em nenhum momento o fiz nesta crónica.

Algumas pessoas terão razões para se sentirem despeitadas ou mesmo abandonadas pelo presidente da AMI? Acho que sim. Julgo que o processo não foi bem gerido e certamente alguma coisa terá de ser feita para explicar a alguns dos que o apoiaram o porquê de ter aceite o convite de Passos Coelho. E acredito que isso vai acontecer.

Da mesma maneira que muito do que acontecer no futuro - como muita da importância ou da irrelevância política de Nobre - será jogado na sua primeira intervenção depois de regressar do Sri Lanka. Terá de ser claro quanto aos seus objectivos, quanto à sua independência, quanto às suas ambições - e, também, quanto à classe política que, na sombra, mostra os dentes e prepara uma vingança fria contra um homem que a colocou em cheque.

Fernando pode ajudar a mudar a história e levar a cidadania a uma representatividade que nunca teve (e isso seria histórico para a nossa democracia) ou matar as ilusões das pessoas durante décadas. Está na sua mão. Mas à sua frente há um mundo de sombras onde a luz se assemelha a um oásis".

Via Jornal Sol

Online Course Offerings at Harvard University Extension School

Like Harvard University says in its website, "distance education courses are available to meet a wide range of needs, whether you are taking courses for enrichment or you would like to apply the credits toward a degree".

Here are some of the courses available for the Spring term 2011

Anthropology and archaeology
Biological sciences
Computer science
Education
Engineering sciences
English
Environmental studies
Expository writing
French language and literature
Government
History
and many, many more!

Enjoy! This is good stuff!

Here

DuckDuckGo and Wolfram Alpha - there's more in search than Google

We all know Google. Their services are ubiquitous and for the most part really awesome. But there's more than Google in search.

DuckDuckGo and Wolfram Alpha are search engines, just like Google.

DuckDuckGo (DDG) is a search engine based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania that uses information from crowd-sourced sites with the aim of augmenting traditional results and improving relevance.

Wolfram Alpha (WA) is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research.

DDG is more like Google than WA. You will feel more familiarity with DDG than with WA and that's because they have two distinct purposes, being WA more focused on the encyclopedia search style, if I can put it this way. Let's not say more. Search and find for yourself but first take a look at this example.

Here are two search results of the same term "Portugal" in DDG and WA. Obvious, right? Note that I cropped the screenshot. There's more information in each search, of course. :)

Kentucky and Portugal - false twins

If Portugal was an american state, it would be like Kentucky, with an economy of 177 billion; Ireland, for example, has the same GDP as Nevada.

While the map is really funny, the data is not accurate. The current data puts Portugal with a GDP of 232.874 billion (here) and Ireland with a GDP of 227.193 billion (here)

Here

Some startup kids nodes

Here's the list of all the links of startups referred in the trailer of The Startup Kids. But there's A LOT MORE on their website!

Bambuser
Playfish
Vimeo
College Humor
Wildfire
Y Combinator
Art.sy
Song Kick
Eden Ventures
TechCrunch Europe
Wooga
Dropbox
Newspepper

Know more about the interviews in Europe and in the US.

The tech startup kids documentary

The Startup Kids Trailer from The Startup Kids on Vimeo.

Enjoy! ;)

Google's 9 biggest mistakes in the last decade

1- Letting the founders bypass him -- and talking about it;
2- Not anticipating that Steve Jobs would be furious about Android;
3- Asking Google's search team to bury info about a political donation;
4- Failing to close the Groupon buy;
5- Not buying Twitter when it was still cheap;
6- Underestimating Facebook;
7- Striking out in social;
8- Not earning the trust of content owners;
9- Investing in AOL.

It's debatable but it sheds some light into the difficulties of nurturing a company like Google.

Here.

A política precisa de um reality check

Existe demasiada mentira e manipulação, demasiada contra informação e omissão. Muitos portugueses têm dificuldade em perceber o que de facto se está a passar, perdendo-se, por isso, na malha clubística do apoio aos partidos.

Nesse sentido, julgo que seria extremamente IMPORTANTE que alguém em Portugal fizesse um Reality Check sobre o que será dito nos debates televisivos. Poderão seguir o exemplo da CBC, que está a fazê-lo nas eleições canadianas.

Aqui fica.

A Constituição Portuguesa Revista - e-book

A Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos criou um e-book muito apelativo sobre a revisão da Constituição Portuguesa, por ocasião do 35º aniversário da sua criação. Contudo, não é só o seu formato que é apelativo; é também porque inclui diversos comentários muito interessantes, tendo contributos de Luís Campos e Cunha, Pedro Magalhães, entre outros.

Este é o documento que sustenta formalmente a democracia Portuguesa. Tenho a firme crença que ainda se voltará a falar muito sobre este documento na campanha eleitoral. Não pelas melhores razões, infelizmente. Mas deixemos esse assunto para outra altura.

Aqui.

Life tips, by man who lived to 114

They are:

- embrace change; eat two meals a day; work as long as you can; help others, and don't fear death "because you're born to die".

Inspiring.

Here.

Walt Whitman - The Death and Burial of McDonald Clarke

The Death and Burial of McDonald Clarke.

A PARODY.

Not a sigh was heard, not a tear was shed,
As away to the "tombs" he was hurried,
No mother or friend held his dying head,
Or wept when the poet was buried.

They buried him lonely; no friend stood near,
(The scoffs of the multitude spurning,)
To weep o'er the poet's sacred bier;
No bosom with anguish was burning.

No polish'd coffin enclosed his breast,
Nor in purple or linen they wound him,
As a stranger he died; he went to his rest
With cold charity's shroud wrapt 'round him.

Few and cold were the prayers they said,
Cold and dry was the cheek of sadness,
Not a tear of grief baptised his head,
Nor of sympathy pardon'd his madness.

None thought, as they stood by his lowly bed,
Of the griefs and pains that craz'd him;
None thought of the sorrow that turn'd his head,
Of the vileness of those who prais'd him.

Lightly they speak of his anguish and woe,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him,
But whatever he was that was evil below,
Unkindness and cruelty made him.

Ye hypocrites! stain not his grave with a tear,
Nor blast the fresh planted willow
That weeps o'er his grave; for while he was here,
Ye refused him a crumb and a pillow.

Darkly and sadly his spirit has fled,
But his name will long linger in story;
He needs not a stone to hallow his bed;
He's in Heaven, encircled with glory.

W.

A liberdade

Recuperando um post de 2009, aqui fica mais uma vez:

Estátua da Liberdade - uma frase

Venham a mim os exaustos, os pobres, as massas desorientadas, ansiando por respirar liberdade.

Esta frase está gravada na base da estátua.

Poderosa.

Do not track crap

Opinion goes in waves. People surf them without even thinking about it. Don't know what I'm talking about? It's simple. Major companies like Microsoft and Mozilla have already included in their browsers the ability for users to tell websites not to track them. Apple is doing that in their next browser.

What's the point?

Are you aware that mobile carriers know exactly where you are if you have your mobile device connected to the network?

Are you aware of the video vigilance cameras on the streets, malls, stadiums?

Do you care? Have you ever had any harmful consequences of that exposure?

Aren't there ways to keep your browsing history, cookies, etc, clean?

Let's not go paranoid about this!