When is social networking too much?

After reading this post by my good, very Genki friend, I couldn't stop thinking about my own situation.  I use Skype & MSN Messenger daily for real-time communication, Flickr for my photos, Last.fm for music & have even uploaded a couple of public videos to YouTube.  Besides, I post in this blog every day.

Then you have the social networking sites.  I made a MySpace profile ages ago to see what the buzz was all about, but stopped being a regular since I don't really like the whole teen Wild West feeling of it, and most of the people I know offline don't use it.  My main use for it nowadays is just to keep in touch with some of my favourite bands. 

However, the tale doesn't end there.  I use other sites more frequently: Hi5, for most of my Mexican friends, Facebook for my friends here in Belgium and LinkedIn for my professional acquaintances.  Furthermore, I'm present in Tagged for my Asian friends and still have an Orkut profile for a couple of Brazilians. 

It strikes me as interesting that different social networking sites are popular in different geographical areas, and that since they all belong to different companies and conglomerates of course they won't want to agree on interoperability unless something happens.

Some sort of open identity management framework would be really, really nice though.

Gadgets I’d like to own

Now that it is almost time for me to graduate, and as the technological nuthead I am, I've been thinking about those gadgets and other electronics I'd like to get with my as-yet-unearned salary when my student life is over.

  • Xbox 360
  • Nokia N95
  • Flat screen TV
  • Home theatre
  • PSP

Now the problem will be saving money for those again (I tend to be really tight with my wallet) and getting time to use them, as it seems coming back to work will be extremely hectic.

First, though, I need to work on finishing my final project.

Happy Birthday Star Wars!


Darth Vader
Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars Movie. May the Force be with you!

I would really, really like to have a Star Wars marathon this weekend, but given that my DVDs are in Finland and I’m writing my final project, it will not be possible, so, geeks of the world, please do it on my behalf.

More information at the Official Site, TheForce.net and Wired.

Mexico-Germany relations

One of the things that I discussed with the guys mentioned in this post was the reasons behind such a strong relationship between Mexico and Germany.  The largest Deutsche Schule outside of Germany operates in Mexico City, and there are many Germans in Mexico and Mexicans in Germany, due to the strong FDI by companies like Volkswagen and student exchange ties. according to an article I read in the Reforma newspaper a couple of years back, there were more Mexicans registered in the embassy in Germany than in Spain!).  Why is it so?

 

  • Alexander von Humboldt, German scholar, visited Mexico at the beginning of the 19th century during his research trip through Latin America.  That gave the country some visibility in the illustrated circles of the time.
  • The Hanseatic and Prussian states were some of the first European countries that recognised Mexican independence.
  • During the 19th century, Germany was the only great power that didn't try to conquer Mexico after its independence.  Spain tried, France did for a while, the UK harassed the country a couple of times (and helped it a couple too), and of course we know about the results of the Mexican-American war.
  • Furthermore, during the Great War, Germany even tried to convince Mexico to enter on their side, with the ruse of offering support in the reconquest of lost territories.  However, Mexico was in the middle of the Mexican Revolution, and to make matters worse, when the proposal, known as the Zimmermann note, reached U.S. hands, they declared war on Germany.

For more information, you might want to check this note here.

Náhuatl at school?

Looking for some related information I found this news article about the drive by the Mexico City government of teaching Náhuatl, the Aztec language, at local schools.  In principle, I would think it actually is a good idea.  At least in theory there should be no problem with the ability of pupils to learn another language besides English and Spanish (I mean, in some countries of Europe it is common to learn three or more languages in high school).  In my case specifically, I find it rather sad that I can now more or less babble in up to eight languages, but I know only a few words of the languages my ancestors used.

However, as an engineer would say, the problem is implementation.  We all know that in general Mexican education is not of the highest quality at the moment, and the addition of another subject would further complicate things.  Furthermore, I'm rather suspicious of the political motivations behind this move, as it would seem to pander to that part of the population that would rather look inward than ride the wave of globalisation.  Whereas I am absolutely for the preservation of indigenous languages, I don't think that precludes the mastering of other languages such as English or Spanish.  Multilingualism is not a bad thing!  I truly think that the more, the merrier.

Blogueros Mexicanos y debraye sobre la lectura

Entre otras cosas que hice en París (además de encontrarme con mi papá y visitar la región de Champaña), tuve la oportunidad de conocer a dos blogueros que tienen un sitio permanente en mi Bloglines: Ceronne y Chilango en Madrid.

En la muy amena conversación, que por desgracia duró poco dado que Chilango en Madrid andaba con unos amigos y yo tenía que tomar mi tren de regreso, entre otras cosas hubo un momento en que uno de ellos me preguntó cómo era que sabía sobre ciertas cosas.  La verdad es que para mí ha sido siempre normal leer mucho, de lo que caiga, y no se me olvidan tanto los detalles más importantes.

Recuerdo que desde que aprendí a leer a los 4 años, me ha sido imposible soltar los libros.  Ya sean de historia,  economía, astronomía, negocios, ciencia ficción (mucha ciencia ficción), religión, matemáticas, política, o incluso revistas de medicina o biología en general las devoraba (y las sigo devorando) con hambre de más.  No por eso una de las cosas más difíciles para dejar en mi última mudanza fueron mis libros y una de las primeras cosas que he empezado a mandar poquito a poco antes de mi regreso son mis nuevos libros, jajajaja.

Lo bonito del asunto es que entre más se da cuenta que tiene uno idea de algo es que notas que te falta mucho más por aprender.  Siempre alguien te puede enseñar algo que no sabías, así que es mejor llegar con humildad.

Justo por eso es que escribí hace algunos meses esa Oda a la curiosidad, porque creo que lo más importante no es saber, sino tener ganas de aprender.  Por eso siempre me ha gustado tanto conocer a gente que tiene intereses distintos a los míos y también se acerca con una actitud de aprendizaje, porque esa polinización es la que crea las nuevas ideas (grandes y pequeñas).  Por eso mismo es que me hubiera gustado conocer a un miembro de la familia de mi mujer que ya no está en esta realidad, porque solamente viendo su biblioteca me doy cuenta que hubiéramos hecho muy buenas migas.  Por eso mismo me frustra tanto la gente que me dice que quiere aprender pero que no le gusta leer, siendo que en esta época de Google y Wikipedia es tan sencillo encontrar la información que a uno le interesa (personalmente, puedo pasarme horas leyendo artículos de Wikipedia, especialmente los relacionados con lingüística, aunque bien sabemos que nos es perfecta y tiene muchos errores).

Así pues, a menos que pase algún imprevisto de esos que no se desean, no va a haber cambios en el futuro cercano a que mi novia/prometida/amor de mi vida siga llamándome su trivia ambulante.  Aunque ya sé que la cita tiene más de leyenda que de realidad, yo sólo sé que no sé nada.

Mexican league semifinals: Chivas 0(0)-(2)1 América

Chivas lost for the 3rd time this year against our most bitter enemy.  América's goalkeeper Ochoa has definitely developed, and this time around their tactical execution was much better than ours (that the refereeing was awful didn't help much).

Chiva Congelado suffers…

In other news, Mexicans Ricardo Osorio and Pável Pardo have become Bundesliga Champions with Stuttgart.  They join the likes of Carlos Salcido, who just won the Eredivisie with PSV.  We hope that Rafael Márquez of Barcelona also wins, with three matches to go.