Archivos diarios: 30 de septiembre de 2003

Soy el Pedro número dos en Google. Por supuesto, el primero es casi imbatible.

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p class=»media»>[Estoy escuchando: «Surfin’ Bird» de Ramones en el disco Anthology – Disc 1 of 2]

Curioso comentario. El autor ha estado compilando una base de datos de todos los ataques suicidas del mundo desde 1980 hasta 2001: un total de 188. El resultado: hay poca relación entre ataques terroristas suicidas y la religión. De hecho, el grupo con más ataques son los Tígres de Tamil, que son aparentemente ateos:

I have spent a year compiling a database of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 to 2001 – 188 in all. It includes any attack in which at least one terrorist killed himself or herself while attempting to kill others, although I excluded attacks authorized by a national government, such as those by North Korea against the South. The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any religion for that matter. In fact, the leading instigator of suicide attacks is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion (they have have committed 75 of the 188 incidents).

Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist campaigns have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel liberal democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective.

Y luego realiza su análisis:

How should democracies respond? In the past, they have tended to react with heavy military offensives, only to find that this tends to incite more attacks and to stir public sympathy for the terrorists without hampering their networks (this has clearly been the case in the West Bank and Chechnya). In their frustration, some terrorized countries have then changed tacks, making concessions to political causes supported by terrorists.

Yet this doesn’t work either: one likely reason suicide terrorism has been rising so rapidly in recent years is that terrorist groups have learned that the strategy pays off. Suicide terrorists were thought to compel American and French military forces to abandon Lebanon in 1983, Israeli forces to leave most of Lebanon in 1985, Israeli forces to quit the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1994 and 1995, and the Turkish government to grant measures of autonomy to the Kurds in the late 1990’s. In all but the case of Turkey, the terrorists’ political cause made far greater political gains after they resorted to suicide operations.

When one considers the strategic logic of suicide terrorism, it becomes clear that America’s war on terrorism is heading in the wrong direction. The close association between foreign military occupations and the growth of suicide terrorist movements shows the folly of any strategy centering on conquering countries that sponsor terrorism or in trying to transform their political systems. At most, occupying countries will disrupt terrorist operations in the short term. But over time it will simply increase the number of terrorists coming at us.

[Estoy escuchando: «I’m Glad There Is You» de Chet Baker en el disco My Funny Valentine [Blue Note]]

David J. Bradley es el hombre que inventó esa combinación de teclas.

(vía Erik’s Weblog)

[Estoy escuchando: «Cookin’ [Alternate Take]» de Clifford Brown en el disco Clifford Brown Memorial Album [Blue Note]]

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Todavía no tenemos televisión de alta definición, y van los japoneses e inventan un sistema de televisión con 16 veces la resolución del mejor sistema actual. Se llama, por supuesto, UDTV: televisión de ultrarresolución.

(vía Gizmondo)

[Estoy escuchando: «Perfect» de Smashing Pumpkins en el disco Adore]

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Recuerdo que mis amigos yo soñabamos en el instituto con disponer de un sistema como el Minitel frances, aquella peculiar red gala diseñada para sustituir a las guías telefónicas y que lentamente se fue ampliando un poco. Pensaba que habría desaparecido haría ya mucho tiempo, pero resulta que no, que sigue vivita y coleando. Y ahora, para modernizarse un poco, se conecta a internet:

This is perhaps why France Telecom is now trying to widen Minitel’s appeal to a younger audience. It has put together a package of software to make Minitel available on the internet.

One service makes websites available as simple text on a Minitel terminal, while another service lets net subscribers visit Minitel sites.

This has breathed new life into the ageing piece of technology. Despite reports of its demise, a third of the French still have access to the Minitel network and four million terminals are in daily use.

[Estoy escuchando: «Raga Ahir Bhairav» de Rupak Kulkarni en el disco Classical Flute]

Las presentaciones PowerPoint son odiosas. Con facilidad te permiten confudir las listas con el pensamiento, y encima dan la impresión de poder condensar el conocimiento humano en una diapositiva. No sólo son aburridas, sino además, aportan pocos a lo que el conferenciante podría decir de viva voz o presentar redactado. Se podría usar bien, pero muy poca gente es capaz.

No es un problema en sí de PowerPoint, pero ese programa acrecienta esos defectos. Y encima, ahora todo se hace en PowerPoint. Incluso informes que deberían redactarse se muestran como una serie de listas con bolita. Como comenta este artículo, The Level of Discourse Continues to Slide, algunas personas opinan que el uso de PowerPoint podría tener importantes consecuencias:

Before the fatal end of the shuttle Columbia’s mission last January, with the craft still orbiting the earth, NASA engineers used a PowerPoint presentation to describe their investigation into whether a piece of foam that struck the shuttle’s wing during launching had caused serious damage. Edward Tufte, a Yale professor who is an influential expert on the presentation of visual information, published a critique of that presentation on the World Wide Web last March. A key slide, he said, was «a PowerPoint festival of bureaucratic hyper-rationalism.»

Among other problems, Mr. Tufte said, a crucial piece of information — that the chunk of foam was hundreds of times larger than anything that had ever been tested — was relegated to the last point on the slide, squeezed into insignificance on a frame that suggested damage to the wing was minor.

The independent board that investigated the Columbia disaster devoted an entire page of its final report last month to Mr. Tufte’s analysis. The board wrote that «it is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation.»

In fact, the board said: «During its investigation, the board was surprised to receive similar presentation slides from NASA officials in place of technical reports. The board views the endemic use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers as an illustration of the problematic methods of technical communication at NASA.»

El comentario de Edward Tufte se puede encontrar aquí. Tufte es autor, entre otros, del libro The cognitive style of Powerpoint.

[Estoy escuchando: «Raga Ahir Bhairav» de Rupak Kulkarni en el disco Classical Flute]

¿Recuerda La era del diamante? Salía un libro llamado «Manual ilustrado para jovencitas», que por medio de nanotecnología e informática se iba a ajustando a la personalidad de la lectora y permitía mostrar imágenes, vídeo y otras muchas cosas. Pues el día en que podamos tener un libro tal en las manos está cada vez más cerca informa Nature:

A single sheet looks pretty much like ordinary paper. But the ink can be rearranged electronically fast enough to show video movies.

Its devisers, Robert Hayes and Johan Feenstra, have also figured out how to create full-colour displays. Their colour screens would be four times brighter than the flat devices currently made from liquid crystals, they reckon.

The invention is the latest version of ‘electronic ink’. Researchers hope to combine the convenience, robustness and readability of printed material with the vast and flexible information content of laptop computers.

[Estoy escuchando: «Passion Dance» de McCoy Tyner en el disco The Real McCoy [Blue Note]]

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Alertbox, la columna de Jakob Nielsen donde habla de usabilidad, cumple ya 200 números. Muchos años defendiendo la usabilidad y explicando cómo crear una experiencia más agradable para el usuario. Entre sus victorias, destaca su triunfo sobre el WAP. Pero la verdad sea dicha, ese gigante tenía pies de barro blandito.

[Estoy escuchando: «Passion Dance» de McCoy Tyner en el disco The Real McCoy [Blue Note]]

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Ya que estamos, tres artículos (en realidad, uno es una entrevista) sobre java que parecen interesantes:

Java for Bioinformatics
Readable Java 1.5
New Language Features for Ease of Development in the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 1.5: A Conversation with Joshua Bloch

Hay que prepararse para las nuevas características de Java 1.5. Algunas parecen muy útiles. Otras, más bien adornos. Veremos.

[Estoy escuchando: «Dead Man In My Bed» de Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds en el disco Nocturama]

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Bruce Sterling comenta Ten technologies that deserve to die. Mis favoritas, que no las peores: El viaje espacial triuplado y el DVD.

(vía rc3.org Daily)