02/06/08

No Internet + No Phone = Get Things Done

Posted in Mobility, The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

Things, OmniFocus, Anxiety they’re all neat applications that can help you to Get Things Done (GTD).

But I just realized that the real GTD is having no internet access. Stranded near St. Tropez with my Mac and no internet connexion I did more actual work in a couple of hours than in a whole online working day. How?

• No email
• No Skype (huge time consumer)
• No Twitter
• No Safari
• No Google Reader
• No Wikipedia to fill my knowledge voids
• No bittorrent
• No iTunes (my music library sits in an external drive)
• No phone calls (don’t like roaming costs)
• No application or system upgrades to download and install
• No new features to check on the upgrades

This allowed me to:

• Go running on the woods
• Restart Douglas Coupland’s J-Pod on the beach
• Watch Rossi win the italian Grand Prix
• Write this post while I’m offline in the terrace of my appartment
• Take a long walk in Port Grimaud
• Have a Boullabaisse for dinner

In any case if you’re serious about GTD, a part from staying offline, consider getting Things, the simplest and yet more powerful GTD app for the Mac.

24/03/06

mexican literature

Posted in Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

Still in Mexico, in the city of Querétaro, I was invited to a literature class by some friends. Here’s my exercise that I had to read in front of the class.

(Sorry is only Spanish! If anyone wants to translate it into English let me know.)

Querétaro, 21 de Marzo de 2006

Desemboqué en una calle amplia; allí se congregaba un montón de gente que parecía enfadada. Era una manifestación. No sabía si a favor o en contra ni tampoco a favor o en contra de qué, pero tenía poco que hacer y decidí sentirme enojado por un rato.

Me adherí cual sindicalista de pro a la cabeza de la marcha donde sus líderes entonaban ocurrentes consignas mostrando la capacidad creativa del pueblo mexicano especialmente cuando anda cabreado.

El puteo une, lo aprendí en la mili y a juzgar por la unanimidad en los cánticos de los manifestantes el puteo debía ser considerable.

Seguí pues protestando con el resto de mis nuevos compañeros cuando pasamos por delante del hotel Virrey de Mendoza con sus mesitas bajo los arcos, sus meseros y con sus gringuitos preguntándose por qué esta atracción no venía en su guía de viaje.

Recuerdo que un matrimonio gringo que por su aspecto tenía pinta de gozar de una muy buena pensión nos sacó una foto. Yo, y para no ser descortés les correspondí: les tomé una foto a ellos.

Continuamos hacia la catedral entonando consignas cada vez más creativas y explícitas lo que me permitió entender de qué iba protesta. Era algo de agua y tierra, de tierras y derechos, de derechos y escuelas y de todas las posibles combinaciones de dichos sustantivos.

La manifestación se detuvo finalmente delante del edificio de enfrente de la catedral que casualmente es el palacio del gobernador, o de alguien que manda mucho a juzgar por el número de ventanas y de policías.

Los que iban a mi lado en la cabeza de la manifestación subieron a un entarimado desde donde dirigirían las arengas de la masa enfervorizada. No tuve tiempo ni de dudar. A la vista de los organizadores yo era un líder representante de alguna organización cultural, sindical o escolar venida de algún rincón de Michoacán a reclamar algo. Asumí el rol hasta sus últimas consecuencias. Pasaron por mi cabeza los discursos de Companys, del Che, de Marcos y hasta las teleprédicas de Patt Robertson.

Me llegó inevitablemente el micro y puño en alto comenzaron a brotar las consignas solidarias que antes había gritado en la manifestación y algunas de las que había oido de mis predecesores.

A medida que la gente iba haciendo suyas mis consignas, que eran las suyas hechas mías, se me hacía más fácil hablar, de modo que impregnado del espíritu de reivindicación del ambiente y del síndrome del karaoke no solté el micro hasta que me lo quitaron.

Al rato bajé del estado mientras aún seguían los discursos, y observando al representante que tenía la palabra me vi a mí mismo unos momentos antes. ¿Había sucedido de verdad?

En mi computadora queda una foto de una pareja de jubilados gringos con el título “Manifestación en Morelia”.

13/03/06

mexico lindo y querido

Posted in Photography, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

One of the many good things about Mexico is that you don’t have to be an expert photographer to get good camera shots.

Here’s a Sunday walk around Morelia, Michoacán in pictures. Enjoy!

18/01/06

tag my bush

Posted in Advertising, Photography, The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

Tagging is hot not only on the internet.

See how the anonymous artist tagged a pile of dog’s poo in the streets of San Francisco. Or was he tagging George W. Bush?

As funny as it may sound, I wasn’t the only one taking pictures to this pile of poo.

This picture was taken here.

12/01/06

francesc pujols may be right

Posted in The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

A free sandwich, a free tour, a free TV channel and free orange juice can be the proof of Francesc Pujol’s prediction: Catalans will have everything paid for.

Francesc Pujols, a fairly unknown surrealist Catalan philosopher from the early XX century, concluded his philosophical theory predicting that catalans would have everything paid for when traveling around.

I remember Salvador Dalí telling a story about a Catalan eating in an expensive restaurant in the future. The waiter would come and ask him: -Sir, are you Catalan? Then everything is on the house.

We may not quite be there but there are some things that make me thing that Francesc Pujols may be right.

In my recent trip to San Francisco I happened to sit next to a Scottish girl who was on her way to El Salvador to act as an observer on the upcoming election. She had been in Barcelona working and had taken some Catalan language lessons in Glasgow. She could speak some Catalan and she even knew how to tell the time in our language (more than most people from Barcelona). She offered me her sandwich (this might have something to do with her being vegetarian).

When I got to San Francisco, Lisa, a colleague of the company I was going to work for, came to pick me up. She told me she was of Italian and Catalan origin, being her grandmother from Barcelona. She showed me around the City with her car.

After the tour I checked in at the hotel and when the concierge saw my name and passport he said right away: -Is this a Catalan family name? He recognized a name that didn’t quite match with a Spanish passport. It didn’t sound Spanish to him and he happened to know something about Barcelona. I got a corner room with a view on a high floor with free HBO.

The next day I had breakfast at the fancy arabic-fusion restaurant at the hotel. The waiter there, a moroccan who has been living in San Francisco for the last 20 years asked me where I was from. When I said from Barcelona he replied right away: -Oh you’re Catalan I see. He told me that he’d been in Perpignan visiting one of his friends and that’s how he knew about Catalonia. I got extra fruit salad and extra orange juice.

I don’t know how long it will take until we get everything for free but we’re sure on the right track.

More on Frances Pujols (in Catalan)

07/01/06

revisiting einstein

Posted in The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

Nothing better than a transcontinental flight to understand Einstein.

Wake up in Barcelona, breakfast over France, lunch in London, sunrise over Iceland, tea in Canada and dinner in San Francisco in a day of 33 hours.

The advantages of the postindustrial era: you don’t have to be Einstein to understand how time extends and space compresses.

09/12/05

podberry pc

Posted in Interface, Mobility, Travel, Usability | No Comments » Tweet This Post

Mobile devices for underground mobile users.

If you have ever been in London you have no doubt spent quite some time in the London underground. Tube as they say.

While some things such as the “mind the gap” reminder and the ability to read huge newspapers while standing will never change, I noticed some new trends in the habits of the tube users: the use of mobile devices. The ranking was:

• Mobile phone
• iPod, in any flavour
• Blackberry
• Pocket PC

I guess it would be nice to have an all-in-one mobile device with the storage of an iPod, the connectivity of a Blackberry phone and the versatility of a Pocket PC. Call it the podBerry PC or call it the iPod Phone. Steve Jobs are you there?

02/12/05

mulimob goes swinging in london

Posted in Languages, Mobility, Music, The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

MuLiMob is a European Commission funded project in order to explore new trends in music and mobility in a multicultural environment to turn them into business opportunities. Last Wednesday a presentation was held in London SoHo.

Major record labels have vast resources to deploy and capitalise on the mobile music opportunity. Independent labels and their artists are not represented and the offer is now biased towards commercial hits. Music diversity and multicultural representation are being compromised especially on mobile platforms, where content has to fit in small screens and access to large amount of data is a tedious task.

MuLiMob hosted a presentation and a networking event in London to stimulate the discussion between independent music labels, the mobile industry and artists in order to support the music of artists you’re not likely to find in the download area of your mobile operator.

Marshall McLuhan Award winner Douglas Rushkoff made an excellent virtual appearance on a recorded webcam video, talking about preserving the cultural diversity on the internet era and why is not only a romantic argument but an economic one.

The pannel was composed by:

• Michel Lambot, President of Impala and Co-Chairman of Play it Again
• Edward Kershaw, Head of Music of Vodafone
• Simon Wheeler, Head of new Media of Beggars independent music label
• Cibelle, Independent artist
• David Williams, Music & Audio Industry Director of Nokia
• and Hélène Abrand, MuLiMob Team Leader

Of note also Rudy de Waele’s presentation on the current situation of mobile music.

The event ended with a dj session of exotica and strange music by Brazilian artist Cibelle from Belgian Crammed Discs label.

Worth to mention the two themes of Yma Sumac, Inca descendant and the only singer whose voice spanned 5 octaves!

A Paris based Brazilian artist recording for a Belgian label playing an Inca descendant mambo in London. I couldn’t find a better example of multiculturality, music and mobility.

Cibelle deejaying to Yma Sumac’s high pitched tunes (photo by Will Dennehy).

Check Cibelle’s latest limited CD and DVD “About a Girl” at Crammed.

22/09/05

riding the waves in paris

Posted in Mobility, The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

It’s funny to see how people and organizations name their wireless networks: names of places, institutions, shops, hotels, people’s names, telephone numbers, router models, street names or area codes.

I guess it won’t be long before we see commercial messages in the names of wireless networks. Think about how grateful would you be to a brand that offers you free internet access when you are desperately looking for a free hotspot.

Non intrusive advertising on the palm of your hand linked to a immediate reward and a satisfying experience.

The right service, at the right time in the right place. Every advertiser’s dream come true.

The Giant is thinking.

Here’s the list of networks stored in my Pocket PC after a week in Paris:

WLMG, Alex, kubi, PERIWAY, Wanadoo_ea45, Ventes, NETGEAR, AP04_IC_LeGrandHotel, JB, Participation, raccah, MCDONALDS, Apple Network, 3prie!re9, MyWireL, pizza marzano1 by hotcafe, OzoneParis.net: acces libre, Effigies, CAPARIS, Airport maison, N9UF_TEL9COM, Francisco’s Network, linksys, Wanadoo 02a8, ACCESSIA, orange, maison_nlg, METEOR, naxos, lily, ccc, Wanadoo_ff1c, DW-b-200-24289, Wanadoo_5414, CT635, Le Cavalier Bleu, strollet04v, eurospot, wifipartage, AP3webdesign, marani, telephonie, Apple Network f71727, BROCELIANDE, OIO, BALLE_AU_BON, Batailleonline, H50G54R78, FEU wireless – Bibliotheque, WiFi_Public_Beaubourg

18/09/05

paaaaaris

Posted in Photography, The real world, Travel | No Comments » Tweet This Post

Some pictures I took in Paris. Check them at flickr.com