Older blog entries for ralsina (starting at number 688)

Colón Al Colón

Spanish only, sorry!


Un lugar común en la charla política argentina es "se gastan la plata en Fútbol para Todos en vez de cosas importantes". Siempre me hizo un poco de ruido, a ver si me sale explicar por qué.

Para empezar parte de una jerarquía de prioridades, hay cosas más importantes que otras, y una de ellas, el fútbol, es menos importante que alguna, y por lo tanto no habría que gastar dinero en ella. Eso es un argumento de calidad dudosa, ya que no se gasta dinero únicamente en la cosa más importante.

Imagináte que en tu casa se llega a un consenso, y deciden que la cosa más importante es la comida, y a continuación gastan el 100% de todos los sueldos en comida. Eso parece razonable? No. Las prioridades definen en qué se gasta más o menos y en algún caso si hay que cortar algo se cortará lo menos importante, pero "A es más importante que B" no es, a priori, motivo para no gastar nada en B.

Lo que sí sería motivo para no gastar nada en fútbol sería que provocara un daño. Por ejemplo, a mí me gustaría que el gobierno no gastara un peso en ejército, porque no veo que sirva para nada, e históricamente (digamos los últimos cien años) el ejército argentino y sus aledaños han sido claramente un factor negativo en la vida de la nación, desde bombardear Buenos Aires, a invadir Malvinas, derrocar gobiernos, etc. Aún si sos, ponéle, antiperonista, y creés que Perón es la causa de todos los males... bueno, el viene del ejército.

Pero no creo que el fútbol sea algo malo en sí mismo. No es como si estuvieran gastando la guita en petardos. Entonces, comparémoslo con algo similar. Comparémos a Colón (de Santa Fe) con el Colón.

En el fondo, tanto el fútbol (y Colón) como el Colón, son entretenimiento. Son circo. Los presupuestos son comparables (dentro de un orden de magnitud, o sea, no es que el fútbol cuesta cien veces más). Si bien el origen de los fondos es distinto, para este análisis no hace diferencia, es plata pública, plata de impuestos.

¿Qué nos dá el Colón, que no nos dá Colón? Nos dá ópera y ballet. Formas artísticas que al 93% (porcentaje inventado) no les mueve un pelo. Colón (no el colón) nos dá fútbol, apreciado por un porcentaje mucho mayor de la población.

El Colón nos da, dije, esas formas artísticas, apreciadas en gran parte por gente que, seamos sinceros, podría pagar por ellas. Sí, hay una cantidad de gente de clase media y baja que va al Colón. También hay un montón de oligarcas que van a ver espectáculos pagados por los impuestos de gente a la que no le interesa en lo más mínimo pagar por ellos. El Colón subvenciona el entretenimiento de los ricos.

Sí, también es cierto que Colón (el equipo) provee fútbol, que mucha gente (yo incluído) no tiene ningún interés en ver (especialmente a Colón), pero cada fin de semana más gente aprecia un partido del Sabalero que la audiencia de media temporada de lírica.

¿Entonces, si uno hiciera un cálculo utilitario, por qué habría que pagar por el Colón para pocos y no por Colón, para muchos? ¿Por qué nadie pide que cierren el Colón?

¿No hay una hipocresía ahí? ¿No hay un juicio de que el Colón es cultura mientras que el fútbol no lo es? ¿Es ése en realidad el argumento?

Yo, personalmente, nunca fuí a ver un espectáculo al Colón, igual que nunca fuí a ver a Colón (debo haber ido a ver a Unión 8 veces en 30 años, con la consiguiente desilusión paterna), pero sé que hay gente que aprecia cada una de esas cosas, y sé que el "problema" de no apreciarlas es mío. No de ellos. No está mal que les guste la lírica, o el ballet, o el Torneo Clausura.

Y no está mal que un gobierno le dé a la gente algo que les guste. No está mal que el Colón le dé a los porteños motivo de orgullo porque tienen ese teatro ahí, y a algunos el placer de ir a ver una función. No está mal que Colón le dé a los sabaleros motivo de orgullo porque están en primera, y el placer de ir a ver un partido. Y no está mal que un gobierno ponga plata para eso.

Aunque eso no sea tan importante como el Garrahan, o como repavimentar una ruta, o como pagar un policía. Por lo menos no la están gastando en el ejército.

Syndicated 2013-02-22 17:35:24 from Lateral Opinion

New Nikola Tutorial

Tim van der Linden has written a impressive tutorial about how he used Nikola to create his new site shisaa.jp

It documents the whole process from scratch, starting by downloading Nikola up to building your own theme.

Even if you are already using Nikola you may find some new stuff there, so take a read (also, his theme is so pretty :-)

Syndicated 2013-02-21 17:41:38 from Lateral Opinion

Math Works Now

Docutils has supported math rendering for a while now. That means Nikola should have supported it for a while too, but never did correctly because ... well, because noone ever tried, maybe?

Well, it does now, because Damian Avila has fixed it!

Read more...

Syndicated 2013-02-20 10:13:22 from Lateral Opinion

Nikola 5.3 released

I am happy to announce the release of version 5.3 of Nikola a static blog/site generator. It includes some minor features and a good amount of bugfixing. Upgrading to it should not cause you any trouble, as far as I know.

Here's the changelog:

Features

  • Bootstrap 2.3.0
  • Optionally use content distribution networks for jquery and twitter-bootstrap (USE_CDN option)
  • Improve progressive rendering by moving javascript to the bottom of pages
  • New Brazilian portuguese translation.
  • New planetoid experimental extra_plugin

Bugfixes

  • Make really sure we import the right conf.py
  • Make SLUG_TAG_PATH a config dep for most pages
  • Removed meta title tag for better HTML validation
  • Removed #999 background from footnote backlink.
  • Made footnote references be superscripted.
  • Centered figure's image and caption.
  • Removed outset border from admonitions.
  • Use default theme as last resource for messages/translations
  • DATE_FORMAT option was being ignored
  • Remove trailing "" on windows gallery links (Issue #298)
  • Inconsistent breadcrumbs in gallery pages (Issue #303)
  • Use source files as bundle dependencies instead of outputs (Issue #294)

Enjoy!

Syndicated 2013-02-19 12:49:20 from Lateral Opinion

Gadget Review: INCIPIO Universal 1 Port 750mAh Backup Battery

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BXGIfaX%2BL._SS500_.jpg

It's roughly the size of my thumb (a bit thicker, a bit shorter), cable is not included and needed.

I got this at the till while buying socks in San Mateo for 5 dollars.

What is it?
A small prism with a male foldable USB socket on one end, a female USB socket, a battery in the middle, a tiny button and tiny led.
How does it work?
When you are plugging stuff to charge via USB, you plug this in the middle, so computer -> backup battery -> gadget. That charges the gadget and the backup battery. Then you throw it in your pocket/bag when you leave home.
What does it do?
It lets you recharge roughly half a phone's full charge, when you inevitably run out of battery, so unless you forget to charge both things, you'll manage to survive.
What could be better?
It could come with a micro-usb male instead of a USB female, because that means you also have to carry a cable (no big deal)
What does the button do?
It stops/starts the current flow into the gadget.
What does the LED do?
Tells you if current is flowing (green) or if it's charging (red).
Can you charge anything?
Yes, but 750mAh is enough to keep a Nexus 7 working for about 30 seconds ;-) Does a decent job on a Kindle though!
Are you going to lose it?
Oh yes, the thing is tiny.

Not a bad 5 dollar gadget. However, you can find it in Amazon for $30 at some places, and that's robbery.

Syndicated 2013-02-10 19:53:43 from Lateral Opinion

Gadget Review: Kindle Paperwhite

I have had a Kindle Paperwhite (with ads) for a month. I was a big fan of my previous kindles, specially the 4th-gen non-touch one. I preferred it to the Kindle Touch because it was lighter, the bezel was shallower, and it had dedicated page-flipping buttons.

So, why did I get a Paperwhite instead of the cheaper 4th gen after I sold my Touch? Because of the darkness.

Reading is an enjoyable activity, and I read almost anywhere, in the supermarket queue, while having breakfast, while on the train, and in bed. But in bed, the older Kindles required me to turn on the light, like a caveman.

Of course, I could read in my cellphone (small) or in a tablet (heavier!) or in a book (again, lights, caveman!) So, this was the logical choice.

It still doesn't have the buttons, and it still has a touchscreen which makes little sense in a Kindle (except for the keyboard) and the bezel is intermediate. But the lighting is glorious. Sure, it's uneven at the bottom. So is the lighting in a paper book while in bed (check it out). But it's not all that heavy (even with the fancy cover), and it has a similarly glorious battey life.

The cover is really great. It feels like leather/rubber, it's solid, has a deadgrip on the device, and it turns on/off when you flip it open/closed, so you don't have to hunt for the tiny button at the bottom.

The font selection is a welcome improvement, although none compares well to the default.

Also, WTF happened to the audio? Why is it gone?

So my ideal Kindle that will never exist would be: a 4th gen with frontlight and smart cover. A man can always dream.

Syndicated 2013-02-10 17:54:49 from Lateral Opinion

Nikola 5.2 released!

I am thrilled to announce that you can now download Nikola 5.2. a new version of my static blog/site generator.

What's new in this version? A LOT. Don't let the minor version tick fool you, this version is packed with goodness. Let's start with features:

You can easily embed more content:

  • New vimeo directive for restructured text.
  • Custom "gist" directive providing reStructured text support for GitHub gists.

You can write your content in almost any markup:

  • Textile markup support.
  • Creole Wiki markup support.
  • txt2tags markup support.
  • bbcode markup support.
  • And of course, it still supports reStructured text, Markdown and HTML.

More languages:

  • New Catalá translation
  • New polish translation.
  • New Simplified Chinese translation.
  • Use multilingual Disqus (although it doesn't seem to work)

You can import your data:

  • New Blogger/Blogspot importer
  • Much improved Wordpress importer
  • Extract metadata from filename by using regexp (helpful for importing from octopress or other systems).

You can do fancier and more configurable sites:

  • One-page, dynamic-loading, client-rendered site plugin (task_mustache)
  • Recursive post/story folders
  • New COMMENTS_IN_GALLERIES and COMMENTS_IN_STORIES options.
  • Local search based on Tipue (extra_plugins/task_localsearch)
  • Added comments to image galleries
  • New option RSS_TEASERS
  • New STORY_INDEX option to generate index.html in story folders.
  • Add multi size favicon support.

You can use Python 2.6 or higher ... including Python 3. The only missing bit for full Python 3 support is Google sitemap generation.

And of course, a lot of bugs got smashed:

  • Added sane defaults for most options, so you can have a lean config file.
  • Made layout of the site theme responsive, with collapsing navbar.
  • Use timeline instead of parsing post_pages in generic_page_renderer and task_render_pages.
  • Updated disqus integration code, added identifiers so it works on any URL.
  • Make sure folder links end in "/" in the gallery code.
  • Removed copy of PyRSS2Gen, made it a dependency.
  • Detect "namespace" dependencies for Mako templates.
  • Use consistent encodings in RSS feeds.
  • Refactored disqus code into separate helpers
  • Use the correct extension (or raise an error) on new_post
  • Fix titles that include quotes
  • Updated to current CSS from docutils (was using version from 2005)
  • Avoid needless regeneration of gallery indexes.
  • Always ensure the folder for the new post exists.
  • Get title from filename if not available in metadata.
  • Don't copy sources if they end in ".html"
  • Don't link to unexisting translations.
  • Sort tags case insensitive.

Enjoy!

Syndicated 2013-02-06 20:37:56 from Lateral Opinion

Siempre que pasa un tren.

Escuchando "Mi Gin Tonic" de Calamaro con mi señora, escuchamos "Hay un deseo que pido siempre que pasa un tren". Me río, digo "Ese verso es una pancheza", y ella me aclara que cuando estás en el andén y pasa el tren, hay que pedir un deseo.

Jamás había oído hablar de esa superstición, y entonces caigo: es porque en Santa Fe nunca pasa el tren. Esto me abre la puerta a inventar supersticiones hiperlocales, como "cuando te mea una catinga indica futuro infortunio en el amor", o "el paso del camalote predice el clima". O, como decía mi vieja, "si cruzan los sirirís, viene tormenta".

Los dejo con Calamaro:

Syndicated 2013-02-01 12:45:12 from Lateral Opinion

Lunch-hour feature in Nikola: Blogger import

Today at lunch, I added support for importing blogger (maybe also blogspot? They seem to be the same nowadays) blogs into Nikola my static blog/site engine.

What works?

Well, the only site I tried works, mostly.

  • Posts
  • Pages
  • Tags
  • Drafts
  • Blog Metadata (except language)
  • Redirects to keep URLs stable (at least it tries really hard!)
  • URL rewriting in the posts (it tries!)
What's not there?
  • Comments import (it makes more sense to import them via Disqus' import tool)
  • Attachments (images and such)
  • Much testing

It's basically on par with the Wordpress import, except noone has used it for real. So, feel free to try!

(It's nikola import_blogger name_of_the_dump.xml)

Syndicated 2013-01-30 17:26:38 from Lateral Opinion

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