Atheism is open now

The new Atheism site on StackExchange is open to the public now.

Mind you, it’s not only for atheists. If you are curious, have questions or just want to lurk and see what others are saying, feel free to drop by anytime.

Donating to Wikimedia Foundation

I use Wikipedia a lot. It’s one of those things that is just there, like the air that I breathe or the spot on my head that I scratch when I need to focus. Just there, always there.

But, as Sue Gardner says, not many people know that Wikipedia is run by a non-profit organisation of about fifty people. They need money for infrastructures, bills and salaries. They use your donations to keep Wikipedia there for all of us. I give them a tiny slice of my winter paycheck every year, hoping that they will still be there when I need them.

If you use Wikipedia, I encourage you to do the same, within your own possibilities. See here.

Atheism in beta

The Atheism Q&A site at StackExchange is now in private beta. It will open to the public on 21 December. Drop by, make a question and share your thoughts!

Concept has launched

Concept is fully commercial since 1st April. Thanks to Martin, Isabel and others who made this possible!

Cobase is out there

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.

Research budget cut down in Spain

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

Computing infrastructures specialist: position available

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.

Yum

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.

Despair

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.

Scientists

Is it a curse?