Edythemighty (dot) com

I'm feeling rather folksy today, so it's time to do another collection of videos. Last time I did this it was mostly hiphop/rock mashups. Now it's all that foot stomping, forlorn folk ye love deep deep down.

Today in class, we had to set up a server using the naming scheme srv-1XX, where XX is some arbitrary number assigned to you. Since I had missed out on some class due to my trip to PR and was a bit behind on these things, I asked the professor to give me a number. He turns to me and says "Just use your age. How old are you?". I quickly respond without thinking "How old do you want me to be?". Never before have I had such a perfect comeback come so naturally.

Later on, I gave a gift of a taino necklace to someone in my class who had a birthday while I was away. I challenge them to guess what it is. One turns to me and says "That's like one of those aztec symbols or something, isn't it?". I shake my head, snap my fingers and say "That's a taino symbol. A symbol of my ancestors!" and the person goes "Oh nice!". Then I say "Too bad they're all dead..." and the person turns to me and says "You're giving me a dead person's stuff?!"

"No, you see my ancestors were all raped and pillaged by Spaniards..." "Your family was raped?!"

Turn to professor. "You understand me, don't you?" Nods. "Ok, enjoy your gift. Bye"

Not bad for the second day back from vacation.

Disclaimer: I'm in love with a beautiful Indian girl, and let's
face it, there's no bigger Freddie Mercury fan than I.

Below is a copy-paste of a comment I made to Urban Jibaro. I spotted the article in Roger Ebert's Twitter feed, and it just got me thinking and thinking some more.

So I was reading this article in Slate about Indians in the media, and how there's been a sudden burst. I'll spare you the details, you can read for yourself. What makes me bring this to you is that one of the very first comments talked about Latinos, wondering why if Latinos are becoming the majority-minority, why isn't there more about us in the media. It was only a 2 sentence long comment, but it got me thinking. Could it be because there isn't a single, cohesive 'Latino' identity? Everyone wants to identify themselves as PRican, Dominican, Mexican, Argentinian, etc. I was also reminded of a scene from the movie Outsourced, which is gonna become an NBC series soon, where the Indian girl gets into an argument with the American guy over Indian accents. The girl says something to the effect of "We get our English from the Queen, same as you, and we even pronounce some things better". Is it part of that shared English heritage? Is it because we Latinos are seen as a silent, ever present minority, and thus have lost our 'exotic appeal'? (Nonsense, I've had a lot of girls interested in me because they find my Puerto Rican Spanish exotic and my caramel color awesome, but the question does bear asking ;))

Before I got too philosophical about the tribal nature of humanity, I decided to think more about what it means to be Hispanic. Well, that one's easy! Hispanics are those who speak Spanish. Easy enough. Is that a label we should apply to all Latin Americans? Brazilians are Latin Americans, but by and large they don't speak Spanish. Why do we apply such a broad label of Latino to all Spanish speaking Americans, when they often rebel in some form or another, usually in a burst of nationalistic pride?

Oh well, we shall conquer with women like Sofia Vergara! :)

Yes, this post was just an excuse to post that picture. Take that, Nina Shen Rastogi!

I've started a website to cover news about the gulf oil spill. It's at oilspill.edythemighty.com and it's running the Google Living Stories plugin on top of Wordpress. I'd like to eventually get a full Living Stories App Engine install, but I'm not that hard pressed to do so. For now I'm just summing up important events in a few lines and linking to articles.

I did get to go see Jeff Beck at Jazz Fest, and the air quality hasn't taken a tremendous dive yet. I was there as soon as the gates opened, and saw part of mynameisjohnmichael's show, as well as a handful of other shows, until Jeff Beck finally showed up and rocked the fest for 2 hours straight. It's a shame Tal Wilkenfeld wasn't there, but Rhonda Smith is more than good enough to fill the spot of JB's bassist. I got a bit of sunburnt since this was the first time I spent the entire day out sporting my new bald hairdo. JB played Led Boots early on in his set, and I was giddy like a schoolgirl at actually seeing it live! When he brought out the Oxblood for the encore I was yay'n!

I went to see Theresa Andersson at night in Tipitina's FQ, and she was totally amazing. I'm not sure if there's anything I can say that captures that awesomeness.

Constantin Films ordered Youtube to take down all the Hitler's Downfall parodies. I rented that movie because of all those parodies. The director loved them. I was planning on buying Hitler's Downfall, The NeverEnding Story and Perfume next chance I got. Now it looks like I won't be doing that, and it seems I'm not the only one. Good move killing all that free publicity, Constantin.

There's not much left to say. I'm boycotting Constantin Films from now on.

For all kinds of tech coverage En Español, visit my friends over at Noveltica.com

No. I don't have an iPad. Not in launch day, and probably not for a few long, long days from now. However, that doesn't stop me from passing out judgment, based upon the impressions of friends and tech pundits. Depending on who you ask, there's lots or little that could be said about Apple's iPad. It's either a r/evolutionary device, or complete crap. The biggest talking point is multitasking, and Ihnatko has a great take on that:

More of a problem: the iPad is, by its nature, a “one window” interface. You can’t open a movie and have it playing in a corner of the screen while you write. If you want to instant message people, it won’t be a little sidebar that you keep an eye on; it’ll be the whole screen. This is another defining difference between the iPad and a notebook. It’s the same amount of power, but applied with different intentions.

...

I’m glad to hear the increasingly-loud rumors that Apple has figured
out how they want to do third-party multitasking. A signature of Apple’s
design philosophy is not to just fire-hose features into a product.
They like to believe that if they add something, it contributes way more
value than what its presence will cost the user, and that the feature
is consistent with the “story” of this product. I’ve seen Android
tablets with every kind of port and other hardware feature built-in.
Mostly, their purpose is to be something that the marketers and the
users can point to and say “See? Look what this has that yours doesn’t.”

Sometimes they actually enhance the device. Mostly, though, they’re
like a third nipple. Good for conversation, but functionally useless.

Now...to anyone of the many that hate Apple with a passion, they might see these statements as those of an Apple apologist who can't see Steve Job's turtleneck. The iPad, to me, is like a cross between an iPod and a tablet. Not quite its own device since it's still tied to another computer, but able to stand somewhat on its own due to its form factor and library of apps readily availabel through the App Store. It's not so much a revolution as it is a side evolution of existing technology. An offshoot that may yield a new way to look at an existing but floundering market. Untapped potential, which has muddied for years because of terrible implementations.

When you look at some of the earlier entries into the tablet market, such as the countless Windows tablets with terrible battery life and ever more terrible interfaces, and Linux tablets such as the Always Innovating TouchBook, it becomes clear that you can't just slap a desktop OS unto a tablet form factor and expect it to perform with flying colors. The AI TouchBook was a hacker's experiment, merely throwing a custom Linux distro unto an ARM tablet with a touchscreen.

Compare that with the beautiful interface of the Microsoft Courier

While just a demo, there's a world of difference between the interface of the Courier and the iPad which have worked hard to adapt to a new method of interacting with data and programs. These are the lessons the Android devs must take to heart. The iPad and Courier will succeed. They represent a vast break away from the traditional file and folder interface we're all used to, and to something newer and better. They're forcing developers to truly think about the limitations of these type of devices, as well as their strengths. Third-party iPhone and iPad applications may not have multitasking functionality (yet) but the better designed are able to take advantage of the OS's ability to save the state of a program, in case you get a call in the middle of playing your favorite game. Whatever Apple's answer to multitasking may be, I'm sure it'll be an elegant option to code in that takes full advantage of the iPad's hardware and takes well into account its limitations, especially its battery.

Of course this is not to say there are no good Android offerings. The Dell Mini 5 (yes, Dell is still around) brings the openness of Android to a smaller form factor than the iPad, with fairly decent looks. The form factor is excused when you take into consideration that it's a phone! Not quite the same market as the iPad, which is strictly more of a recreational device with its larger screen, but still a worthy contender.

So what, if anything, should there be to learn from all this? Competition is good. Open vs Closed is a powerful dichotomy that drives innovation. Some people will be more than content with the pocket-sized open awesomeness of the Dell Mini 5, while others will prefer the clean, stable iPad. These choices don't make a person an "idiot" or "evil". It's merely choosing the right gadget for one's self. Gather round kids, there's something for everyone!