Reboot

Primer post en español. En serio.

Bueno. Pensé bastante en qué hacer con este blog. Me encantó como inició, pero ciertamente no tuvo continuidad. Eventualmente comencé a publicar yo sólo, y como tenía que mantener mi propio blog, la escuela y otros proyectos, no pude sostener este blog. Pensé en eliminarlo, pero decidí darle una última oportunidad.

Cuando inició este proyecto, me agradaba mucho la idea de distribuir material que me pareciera interesante, sin embargo hubo varios errores. El material disponible en inglés, que fue el idioma original de este blog, es prácticamente infinito. Por otra parte, el material está más limitado en español, aunque también hay una buena cantidad e blogs publicando allá afuera.

Así que estoy planeando re-lanzar este blog. En español. Tal vez incluso con un equipo. Por ahora pienso publicar, al menos un par de veces a la semana. Veremos qué pasa más adelante. Después de todo, si no funciona, siempre hay un botón de Delete.

By Craig1Black

Internet’s undersea connection

Even though Internet has grown with a stupidly epic rate, it’s still not the Matrix or SkyNet. Internet is a series of networks interconnected within. When communications are established between your computer’s network and that ugly site involving a girl in a bathtub, a binary signal travels across a ton of copper cables, fiber optic cables and maybe even a satellite connection.

Satellites are, to put it in understandable terms, fucking expensive. That’s why an oceanic series of fiber optic cables are set in order to connect users across continents. As odd as this may sound, it’s way more awesome in graphic.

Internet's Sea Underworld (As seen on Telegeography)

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Sources:

Telegeography. (n.d.). The Internet’s undersea world. Retrieved from Telegeography by PriMetrica: http://www.telegeography.com/product-info/map_cable/index.php

CreativeBe

Sometimes, you’re simply navigating when you end up in totally awesome sites. Particularly, speaking about software it’s not uncommon to run into perfectly crafted sites with applications so useful you can’t believe how you used to work before knew them. That’s the case of CreativeBe.

CreativeBe's frontpage

I ran into it when I found Dragoman, a drag-and-drop application plainly simple to convert a lot of popular file formats, text, audio, video, archives, just call a name. Or even better, check the supported formats. This made me think in Square Nine. It’s been a while since anything was published around here, mainly, due to a lack of time.

So, an idea popped into my mind. Why not start a software review section? I’ve always liked reading in-depth reviews before testing any piece of software. Doing so always helps you to know what you should expect (or not) from any given app. That’s why I’m starting this section. Stay tuned (this week, I promise) for the first software review.

Interesting Facts About Nintendo

As seen in kroxin

Oddities: Windows Invisible

My geek lifestyle kind of influenced my girlfriend. Her laptop is a mess, though.

She had to write an essay about a medical investigation for Inmunology, so as any other person, she turned on her laptop, opened a (beautiful) article from an online magazine, and got straight to business. After a couple of seconds, Windows XP started to complain about something crashing and it did the best thing it does: Develop random features.

People, with you: "Windows Invisible"

I’m guessing XP decided that Windows 7′s interface is not cool enough, and decided to implement a new, sleek interface, otherwise called “Windows Invisible“. With a 100% transparent task bar, it’s bound to let you work without getting in your way. It won’t even let you open any program!! What the hell. Adobe Reader, Firefox, Word and MSN Live Messenger (the only that can’t get out of the way) are there. You don’t need anything else.

Looking for productivity? Ask for your Windows Invisible copy right now! It ships without warranty, though.

Software design: The way of the ninja

The number one requirement for this project, apart from the project itself is reading the (awesome) book Code Complete, by Steve McConnell, published by Microsoft Press. It’s truly a great book. It’s next to fully referenced, so it’s kind of the Swiss army knife of software construction.

If you have the chance to, read it. It’s an excellent book. I consider it the best good programming practices document I’ve read, so far, mainly due to it’s formality and it’s rich use of previous documents. The best part, again, are the references.

You can’t actually read more than a couple of pages without a reference coming up. But the nice part, is that most of them are not that up to date, but they keep on being valid. Even though this might not make much sense, being Computer science a relatively new discipline, the point is made obvious.

Good programming practices will always be good programming practices. No matter which language you use, which paradigm is it oriented or which project is being developed with it, good programming practices will always be good programming practices.

Perhaps you may ask, why? The answer is plainly simple.

Aika Online Downloader Leaked

Let’s imagine I just uploaded that new version of ERacer everyone is waiting for; (Ya right) but I don’t want to publish the download link yet since I’m planing to release it some days later.

Now, what are the chances of someone guessing the download link?
Indeed, its basically impossible to guess it, starting off with the fact that there is no new version of ERacer (awe).

If you’re around the MMOs world, you might have heard about Aika Online. If not just take it as a game that has a nice looking Realm vs Realm mode.

The american version has been taken by Gpotato and the first closed beta has been announced to run from February 3rd through February 9th. Though there is no official announcement of where/how to download the game, it was so blatant obvious that someone actually guessed the url and posted it on Aika forums.

An Aika game master already removed the thread:

“Hi there,

I’ve unfortunately had to remove your thread, because while it doesn’t technically hurt the process to have people downloading the client early, it’d really be better if we can have everything available at once, an official announcement, etc. (which, as you might guess, will happen very soon).“

While me, as someone who has being playing gpotato games for some years I’d like to say: “/Facepalm”

Note: For legal reasons we’re NOT posting the download link; you’ll have to wait until the official announcement which is likely to happen soon.

Another good reason for not posting the link.

Virtual Suicide

There are people so pathetic out there, this idea ought to pop out eventually. Suicide Machine is a web service which deletes you from LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and previously Facebook, but it started this year blocked. It’ll probably be enabled again later.

Basically, it takes your username and password to access your profile, change your password to a random generated one, access every profile connection you have and delete it, everything done automatically from Suicide Machine’s server, showing you only a video of the progress of your virtual suicide.

I watched Facebook/LinkedIn promotional video and almost died laughing. I actually thought it would be a joke at the end, or something. Oddly enough, the video ends firmly showing that they mean business. But don’t take my word. Watch it for yourself.

Happy new year

Bookmarks leftovers

As school ended, I started to clean up the havoc it left, particularly in my bedroom and my laptop. The problem, is that it’s kind of slow when you have a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and a clean file. Videogames are very bad for productivity. Really.

The thing is, I was cleaning my bookmarks, as they’re the worst disaster I’ve seen in my life, and I found a ton of motivational posters. I couldn’t help publishing them. They’re not new (I know..) but they’re still great.

I could use that

Maps. Always useful.

That's why I don't trust Tech support

Music is my addiction