13 Jun
Tim con su famoso pizarrón blanco
Uno de mis comentaristas y analistas políticos favoritos ha muerto. Tim era un periodista de primera, y a muerto de una manera todavía no muy clara. Mientras trabajaba en la producción de su programa de televisión “Meet the Press”, simplemente cayó muerto. Parece que el infarto cardiaco ha sido descartado.
Extrañaré mucho a Tim, en especial durante las próximas elecciones. Él era un periodista serio, imparcial, inteligente y muy justo.
¡Descansa en paz Tim!
12 Jun
“it was all a sly bit of viral marketing from Timur Bekmambetov for Wanted“… desde Cinematical
21 May
Como bloguero de aparatos electrónicos siempre me ha incomodado el hecho de que los gadgets de los cuales hablo no se venderán en América Latina por mucho tiempo, y en algunos casos nunca. Como latino, quisiera que se preste la misma atención a mi gente como a los estadounidenses, a los europeos o a los asiáticos, pero al contrario, los latinoamericanos y los africanos somos olvidados.
La población estimada de Latinoamérica es de alrededor de 562 millones de personas, mientras que los Estados Unidos tiene casi la mitad, con 300 millones. El problema es que el ingreso per cápita va entre los $12.000 al año en países como Chile, Argentina y México, hasta tan bajo como $3.000 en Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras. En Estados Unidos el ingreso promedio es de alrededor de $40.000 al año. Con eso vemos que nuestra gente simplemente no tiene el dinero necesario para adquirir productos tecnológicos sobrevalorados, y por eso somos un mercado de tercera.
Pero, ¿cuál es la solución para que nos presten más atención?… económicamente la solución está más en manos de gobiernos que permitan el desarrollo, eliminando la sobreprotección de los trabajadores. Me da mucha pena saber que en el Ecuador se eliminó el trabajo por horas y las subcontrataciones, que si bien eran abusadas por los empleadores, ofrecían trabajo para muchas personas. La buena noticia es que el otro cambio está en nuestras manos. Con la producción de tecnología propia, podemos hacer que los grandes fabricantes nos tomen en cuenta.
El desarrollo de software libre es muy popular en nuestros países, y apoyarlo y promocionarlo sólo ayudará al bien común. Las herramientas necesarias para la fabricación de buen software son mínimas. Una computadora, conocimientos y tiempo. Cierto es que muchos de nosotros dedicamos más tiempo a obtener dinero para poder comer que a pensar en software, pero el poco tiempo acumulado, entre todos nosotros, nos ayudará a salir adelante sin problema.
A lo que voy es que ahora, con el internet, tenemos en nuestras manos las herramientas que necesitamos para salir adelante, sólo debemos aprovecharlas y aprender a usarlas. La ayuda mutua para obtener acceso a la tecnología, y obtener los conocimientos necesarios para desarrollar es vital para nuestro progreso. Las computadoras comunitarias, las redes Wi-Fi abiertas y la enseñanza gratuita por medio de installfests o simples clases barriales podrá cambiar radicalmente nuestro futuro.
09 May
What’s the deal with speed limits? are they randomly assigned or is there an actual study to impose a speed limit on a highway or town street? I’m asking this questions because nobody seems to pay attention to speed limits in Connecticut (where I live now) and even worse in California (where I used to live).
In CT the speed limit on interstates is usually of 65 mph. I drive anywhere from the speed limit to about 8 miles above it. I was told once that it was allowed to drive up to 10 miles above the limit, and I once got a ticket driving at 11 miles above it. But people here seem to drive at 20 or more miles above the limit. Yeah, you do see cops pulling people over, specially at the end of the month (do they have to reach quotas?).
In CA the limit was usually 75MPH, and I saw people driving at what it look like 100MPH (try going to Palm Springs at the speed limit and you will be made fun of, or puch out of the road).
Driving at the speed limit is one of those laws that will actually not hurt to follow, and it may save your life. I say this because I don’t agree with all laws, and some laws may actually kill you (I will not go into specifics, but I can definitely give examples if asked by a judge, hehe!). So people please, drive closer to the speed limit, ok? lets not kill each other.
06 May
Hace unas semanas se comunicó con nosotros Natalia Botero del diario “El Colombiano”. Hablamos sobre Engadget, nuestra manera de trabajar, y en general sobre los blogs en español.
Veo ahora que el artículo ya ha sido publicado, y me agrada leer que entiende muy bien el tema y el manejo de blogs de bastante perfíl público, como el nuestro.
Aquí el artículo.
27 Apr
So you know what is going on, please read this post first…
Now the update: I called Western Union to have my friend’s name corrected. Went through all the stupid transfers, and got the “o” changed into a “u” (I will not publish his last name here, sorry). I then told my friend to go pick up the money.
The day after, my friend sent me an email to let me know that they do not let him pick up the money because his second last name is not part of the information. We DO NOT use 2 last names in the States, why are they asking him for one there?…
I called Western Union again (yep, same thing, I was transferred several times) and told them to just cancel the transaction and return my money. They said O.K., but will not give me the fee back. WHAT? you will take over 50 dollars from me for a service YOU couldn’t deliver? Here is the deal, there are more than 2 people involved on this, who have spent several hours trying to fix the problem WU caused, and now WU will take my money anyway? My friend can not pick up the money because WU will not give him the money!!… and they refuse to return 100% of it. Is it unreasonable to think that all the money should be returned?
During the last call I asked for the manager. This lady names “Rose” came to the phone, to tell me that if I want the fee back I will have to send a letter to P.O. Box ****. Well, guess what, I did the entire transaction over the phone, I should be able to fix the problems over the phone. I DO NOT want to send the letter (I never send letters, I don’t have stamps, I don’t go to the post office, I DON’T use paper!! ).
So, that’s it. Western Union took over 50 bucks from me, for nothing!!
I will never use Western Union again, and lucky me, there are other options. A good old wire transfer, or MoneyGram.
22 Apr
I’ve been trying to send money to Curacao for several weeks now, and I can’t, because Wester Union sucks! I should have used a good old Bank wire transfer…
So, I went to their website and tried to do it filling up a form. It tells me that Curacao is not a country! Ok, then Curacao is “a self-governing part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands“, but Why is it listed if you can’t send money there? I think it is just a bad designer’s mistake.
Ok, so then I tried to call them to tell them that the website is not working, and they told me to “just go to a store in person”, YEAH!, with your time!
So, I called to send the money over the phone, after talking to the voice recognition software, and giving him all the info, he transfers me to a person that answers the phone saying “Hello (long pause)”… Hello?? What do you mean Hello? a “Thank you for calling Western Union, How may I help you?” would be better, but I guess I’m expecting too much. In any case, I tell her that I will like to send money to Curacao, and she replies “let me transfer you to the right department”. Ok, transfer me, but I already told your machine I was sending money over the phone, the machine should have transfered me to the right department.
I get transfered to a call center in Mexico. I tell them I wanted to send money to Curacao, they get all the info, and transfer me to the “verification department”. The verification department answers the phone saying “Hello (long pause)”, so I go ahead and explain I want to send money to Curacao. They get all my information (for a third time), and tell me that since I’m calling from my cell phone, they will need to call me back on my home phone. I said “ok” and hanged up the phone… the call never came.
A couple of days after I called again, spoke to the machine, got transfered, got transfered to Mexico, and they tell me that they have “no power” and to call back. Western Union can’t afford a freaking generator with the 10% or more they take from my money???…
The next day I called again, spoke to the machine, spoke to the call center in the US, spoke to Mexico, got transfered to the verification department, and “I got them”, because I called from my home phone… they approved the transfer.
Now, my friend sends me an email saying that he can’t pick up the money because his name is misspelled. I freaking talked to a Mexican call center in Spanish. His last name is Spanish… and they misspelled it?? So, I called Western Union to correct the problem. I spoke to the machine, got transfered, got transfered again. The lady on the phone gets my information, and then tells me she can’t correct the problem unless I call her from my home phone… Wait, What?? it was YOUR mistake, YOU misspelled it, and now YOU refuse to correct it unless I drive 30 miles back home and call you from there??… hanged up.
Went to the site to complain, and the form only accepts dashed [ - ] and commas [ , ]. Yup, no ENTERS, no questions marks, no periods, no exclamation signs, nothing!… so I sent a LONG nasty paragraph, with no end lines, no periods, and in less than 1000 characters (also required).
I’ll call them back tonight… but Western Union sucks!
PS: I’m waiting a DMCA violaton notice for using their logo with the “sucks” in red, and also a C&D letter asking me to remove this post.
22 Apr
Esta imagen me pareció excelente. Bastan las palabras, pero un paseo por Estados Unidos le puede hacer subir de peso a cualquiera…
[Vía el blog de Dvorak]
11 Apr
Me voy a abstener de dar mi opinión a favor o en contra del comentario de Jaime Bayly con respecto al ataque colombiano en territorio ecuatoriano, pero publico el enlace porque me ha hecho reír mucho!
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