Apologies for not posting

As some of you have noticed, I haven't been posting news lately, and this blog hasn't been updated in a while.

The reason is that I've been having health issues. By mid-January I'll have a definitive diagnosis.

Until then, don't expect too many updates.

Have a nice Yuletide.

FC

Fernando in South Park

Thanks to the amazing South Park Studio, here's a South Park rendition of me... ;)

I did my best... too bad they don't have a "total shaved bald" template for the head.


Thanks to fellow Argentine now-living-in-Euroland Open Kosmaczewski for the link!

FC

Fernando's outdoors adventure (Jungle computing)

Some people who know me personally have criticized me, saying I'm a home rat, a hermit, a computer geek inmerse in his private world of software and hardware... and in that sense, they have been for the most part right. Very few things force me out, besides the usual buying groceries, attending a show of some sort, or the evermore scattered- exercise walk.

However, that doesn't prevent me from embarking into journeys of dangerous exploration of the wilderness aka "the outside world".

Here's a pic of me yesterday, writing from what looks like the middle of a jungle (which is actually my parents' patio) to Mad Mike and some of our Mad Readers who chastised me because of my DELL opinion piece -and among other abuse, accused me of "not knowing that the dot is the decimal separator for currency amounts in Argentina" (of course, I was right, and he was wrong, as usual with the most vitrolic complainers who preach from their high horse).

[Click to enlarge]

Who said the life of a computer geek can't be dangerous?. Look at that pot above my head? It's about to crush me!.

FC
PS: In case you're wondering, it's a beatiful old Lemon Tree.

Fernando's Crumbling Empire

[UPDATE]: things are safe at my flat. An engineer was here and suggested the internal / hollow brick failure was either due to poor materials used in a modification of the wall or a water leak before I arrived.

Things are going to be repaired soon. :)

Sleep safe, the building where I live will not collaps@#@#@)
;)

Joe from Neurostech thinks I'm a big thing (I'm not) - Still, thanks! :)

Joe Born from Neuros Technology wrote something nice about me on his company blog. It's good to see a small company like his listening to constructive criticism from a computer geek like me.

Still... I kinda blushed when I read him calling me " prominent South America blogger...".

No, I don' t mean I want it removed. No, please keep it there. I always need an ego-boost.

Gee, thanks Joe!. :)

FC

CNN follows my lead wrt under-water life (OK, I wish ;-)

Ocean living: From Hydropolis to Trilobis - Feb. 1, 2007
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/magazines/business2/ocean_real_estate.biz2/?postversion=2007020210

"With land getting so crowded, the age-old fantasy of sea-based living is becoming reality.
Business 2.0 dives in."

Despite the hype, who said it first? me! ;)

As the underwater age approaches, a waterproof digicam is a must
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37325
Jan 31, 2007

Expocomm Argentina: an expo worth seeing

Expocomm Argentina -the 2005 edition- came to an end last Friday, and I had a great time covering the event for the Inquirer this year.

Among the highlights was the deployement of WiMAX, the broadband wireless standard, by two local ISPs. This comes way before the U.S. starts trials of the technology, which according to reports won't happen until 2006.

Once again, Argentina shows the way, and the U.S. follows, later. . Ok, I'm just teasing american readers. Of course Argentina still has a way to go and improve in about every area, yet it's kinda ironic to see the U.S. lag so much in WiMAX deployment. Who knows, maybe in a few dozen years, there'll be a U.S. president who realizes the danger of climate change and signs the Kyoto treaty, as my country did years ago?. . Ok, enough teasing. :)

Here's a link that takes you to a list of my Expocomm 2005 coverage for the INQ. And I made a record number of articles as well!.

http://os2guru.com/expocomm2005.shtml

Happy reading, and I hope I'm able to meet some INQ readers in the 2006 edition!.
:o)

Fernando Cassia makes it to Forbes shock

I can´t frigging believe it!. One of my Inquirer articles mentioned in Forbes.com

The "business" and "finance" magazine Forbes (the kind of magazines I generally despise due to their weak and oversimplified coverage of the Tech world and their promotion of the "get rich at all costs" kind of mentality - or as The Beast, would say, the kind of magazines read by "every rich asshole cokehead with a fast car" -even while I admit that there´s ONE business magazine that I can read without feeling contempt, and that´s BusinessWeek :), publishes an article titled "Top Ten Tech Articles worth reading".

And what article do we find mentioned in the first place?. My own INQuirer article titled "Top 10 Firefox Annoyances". Now that´s a surprise!. I don´t even know yet if to be honoured or outraged. But as someone once said "there´s no such thing as bad publicity". Yet at the same time I don´t feel to good about being used as a weapon against the Open Source movement ("see, open source isn´t that great", seems to be the implied meaning in Forbes´ mention of my article), because my article, while very critical, was meant to be well-intentioned, showing the flaws and shortcoming so it gets better.

I doubt that helping Open Source projects is in Forbes´ top ten interests. Forbes is the kind of magazine that is always glorifying software companies with proprietary products (and the more proprietary, the more market grip they have, and thus earn more, and thus shareholders benefit from it) are actually "Good for Society".

And one last thing.... the name of the author of that Forbes.com piece.... Penélope Patsuris sounds like a totally bogus name of the kind a phone pranker like Tom Mabe would make up.

"I´ve made it to Forbes, Dad, I´m famous!". (not ;-)