I always knew that one of the best ways to increase success was to lower expectations.

Yes. I am being cynical. This is what the guys at Despair, Inc. excel at. Their range of Demotivators® is absolutely awesome. A warning before you go: you really need to love corrosive humour to enjoy Despair.

Enjoy.

Is it a curse?

Mike Papazoglou gave an interesting keynote talk at ENASE 2009 in Milan last week. I especially enjoyed this sentence:

Do you remember programming languages?

He said that in a longing, melancholic tone, as if he was reaching deep inside his memories of long gone conferences of yore when people actually discussed programming languages. It’s true. We don’t discuss programming languages nowadays. They seem to have been relegated to specialised conferences. Programming used to be most of what software was. Today, it’s just a small part. A very small one.

I am just back from ENASE 2009 in Milan, Italy. The good thing for a Spaniard like me about travelling to Italy is that you get to taste yummy Italian food. And you get to see beautiful landscapes and monuments. And you get to practice your Italian. Oh, and yes. The iPhone.

See, I think it’s pathetic that Apple sells the iPhone in Spain exclusively through Telefonica, one of the carriers here, so that you either sign up with Telefonica, pay them outrageous fees and sign in blood that you won’t leave them before two years… or you, well, get yourself a cheap imitator of the iPhone.

I have been a customer of Vodafone for ages, and I am not going to switch carriers now. And, if I switch carriers, it will not be to join Telefonica. I am resonably happy with Vodafone; as happy as one can be in a vampiric relationship with a carrier, that is. The only thing that I was missing was an iPhone.

I knew they sell unlocked iPhones in Italy, which you can use with any carrier. So, a few days before my trip to Milan, I called Apple Technical Support in Spain and asked them whether an unlocked iPhone bought overseas could be used with a Spanish carrier. They responded affirmatively, pointing out that the only issue they could think of was the warranty, since any repairs or problems with the device would have to be channeled through Apple Italy.

Then I called Vodafone Spain and made a similar question: can an unlocked iPhone bought overseas be used with my current Vodafone account? Again, they responded affirmatively. They asked what country the iPhone was from, and when I said Italy, I could almost picture the smile in the lady’s face; apparently, Italian iPhones are well known by Vodafone for being easy to configure and use with Spanish accounts.

Fortunately enough, the hotel I was staying in in Milan was just opposite a Saturn shop, where they retailed the 16-GB iPhone at 565 €. I bought the one with the white back; I don’t know how anyone can have such bad taste as to get the black one. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any decent cases, so I didn’t get one. I will get the colourful socks that Apple makes from Optize, and that’ll be it.

Back at the hotel, I unpacked the iPhone, inserted my Spanish Vodafone SIM card into it, plugged it to my laptop, let iTunes do its thing, and voilà, I had it working. Roaming and all, including internet access over 3G, worked seamlessly.

By the way, on my way back home, I found out that you can buy an unlocked iPhone at the airside shops at the airport in Madrid. However, the price was something like 795 € for the 16-GB model. Crazy. Even Optize, where prices are often low, lists it at 716 €.

I am now a happy customer of Apple and Vodafone in Spain.

Here.

Perspective is a very powerful thing. Perspectives can change. Perspectives can be altered.

– Jill Tarter

What’s worse than being a victim of the rip-off fees of airport wi-fi internet access?

No wi-fi internet access at all.

Indeed, today I realised that Santiago de Compostela airport totally lacks internet connectivity for passengers. Not a single hot spot. Nothing. Nil. Nada.

In fact, I asked at an information counter and the lady there seemed a bit embarrassed when she said “no, there is none”. She added “I am sorry”, which, being this country what it is, means an awful lot.

I know, Santiago is not a big airport. But it has regular international flights and it’s the largest of Galicia. I can’t believe that kubi or some of the other usual wi-fi vampires haven’t yet colonised this place. Are you listening? I am willing to pay 4 € for 30 minutes!

I got my new iPod today. Apple received my broken one in the morning and shipped a new one that same afternoon. After a full synch with iTunes, it’s up and running again.

Linda was right: they have delivered.

I am sad.

The other day I was on the bus watching a TED talk video on my iPod Touch when, out of the blue, the screen went white. Well, not exactly white. It started displaying some weird kind of horizontal white stripes that made things really hard to see or read. It looked milky.

So I dived into the web and engaged Apple’s customer service. In a couple of days they sent a UPS return package for me to send them my iPod. I am expected to live without it for a few days (I hope it’s not longer than that!) until they fix it.

How did I manage to survive before?

We have elections in Galicia this Sunday. Current president Touriño had his face neatly decorated like this at my usual bus stop tonight:

Defaced 1

The photo is crappy because it was made with my phone camera and it was dark.

On the top left of the image you can read “Dálle máis forza”, the electoral motto of the PSG/PSOE party to which Touriño belongs, and which can be translated as “Make it stronger”. Below, “Vota Touriño. O Presidente”, or “Vote Touriño. The President”. This banner has been there for a couple of weeks now. Tonight, when I arrived to the bus stop, I noticed the other banner on top of it. In case you can’t see it well, here you are a more detailed shot:

Defaced 2

The add-on poster shows a guy shooting himself into his mouth. On top of the picture you can read “políticos, facede o favor…”, or “politicians, do me a favour…”. Notice that there is an asterisk after “politicians”. This asterisk works as a footnote call to a list of epithets: “especuladores, miseráveis, vendidos, usureiros, cocainómanos, manipuladores, capitalistas…”, which roughly translates as “speculators, mean, sold-out, predators, cocaine addicts, manipulators, capitalists…”. Below, in large lettering, you can read “a democracia nom nos fai livres”, or “democracy does not make us free”.

Pretty picture, eh?

The text in the add-on poster is written in Galician “lusista” (a variation of Galician closer to Portuguese), which is often associated to strong left-wing Galician nationalist ideas. Touriño, the defaced president, belongs to PSG/PSOE, a purportedly socialist (and hence the “S” in PSG and PSOE) but centralist party, and therefore not very nationalist, but left of the centre anyway. Interestingly enough, this kind of attacks are much more common against PSG/PSOE than, say, PP or any of the other right-wing parties.

I can’t vote, anyway. Some idiot public servant misplaced some papers and I am not enrolled. See, democracy does not make us free.