A couple of years ago, my business partner Martin Birch and I started to put together an idea. Today you can see the results. It’s called Cobase and it’s just seen the light.

It’s about Concept, a software product for the development of complex building projects; it aids with the co-ordination of architectural and engineering technical issues within large, distributed teams. It’s about saving time and misunderstandings. It’s my third start-up. Wish me luck!

Check it out here.

According to a spokesperson of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the 2010 research budget will be decreased by 15% as compared to 2009. This is a dramatic change in relation to the overall direction that the Spanish government has been holding for the last few years, in which a policy of sustained growth in R&D funding was systematically applied.

Controversy is served. Despite the well known world-wide recession that affects Spain as much as any other western country, a 15% cut down is disproportionate when compared to other areas of the national budget, which, again according to government spokespersons, will suffer much smaller reductions, no reductions at all, or will even be increased.

With this post I want to show my disagreement with the Spanish government’s policy of applying the most severe budget cut down in the research area. No al recorte del presupuesto en I+D.

No al recorte del presupuesto en I+D

We have a position available at LaPa – CSIC. We are seeking top people to design and deploy completely new computing infrastructures for the lab. The major areas of expertise that we are looking for are TCP/IP networks, Microsoft Windows Server and Active Directory environments, and systems integration.

Please contact me by 15th November if you are interested. Thanks.

You can download the full call here in English and Spanish.

Apple pie with ice cream.

Cesar's dessert

This was at A Curtidoría in Santiago, of course. Thanks to Isabel for the pic.

By the way, Isabel got herself a reinterpretation of an all-time Galician classic, a tetilla cheese and quince mousse. Isabel was too busy and too shy, so no pic is available, unfortunately.

Yum.

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!