So tomorrow after lunch I’m heading down to Vigo to attend a conference by Richard Stallman, yes, that one.

It will be the second time I see a presentation given by him. The first one was in Badajoz, back in 2007 at OSWC.
He’s not by far the better or most enthusiastic speaker I watched in our Open Source world but it’s nice to attend his talk, specially if it’s your first time.
If you’re attending and haven’t been into this small world of FOSS, I hope he inspires you to come in, the door’s always open. If you’ve been living in it for a while, then I hope he remembers you its basis and makes you proud to be part of something (still) so ahead of our times.

An important thing to mention is that Igalia had rented a bus that will get people from A Coruña, Pontevedra and Santiago de Compostela there. The bus is prioritized for employees but not restricted to. It’s available for anyone who asks up to go and obviously limited to its number of seats. Yup, Igalia is just great and I’m proud to be a part of it.

A while ago Last.fm announced that the poor humans living outside cool countries like the USA, the UK and Germany would need to pay a 3 EUR monthly subscription.
They are so kind and understanding that even provide us, poor bastards living in the wrong countries, with 30 free songs!

I *was* a big fan of Last.fm since I joined it in 2007. Now, I’d like to say goodbye to it for as long as they don’t go back on this decision (actually, since their announcement I never turned on my Last.fm clients).

I decided to do this not because I’m a cheap bastard or would starve if I spent the damned 3 EUR on the service but rather because I feel they’re decision goes against the community that helped/did build their service and also because I know that 3 EUR for me might be nothing but for a guy in another country might be a significant amount of money.

Good bye Last.fm, good times we spent together.

BTW, go explore Jamendo and let me know what you think. Also, check if Spotify works for you.

Last Monday I finally arrived at A Coruña coming from the always great FOSDEM!

Those were 3 intense days where I had the chance to taste some of the finest beers in the world, attend great conferences and meet really nice people.

This year I had the chance to walk in the city and see and feel its magic. I also found the best restaurant I could eat atlast year, this time really in Brussels (last year we went to Gent), I am talking about Amadeus. You DO NOT want to miss this great place if you go to Brussels, Gent or Antwerp. The thing with this restaurant is: you eat a giant piece of ribs with a tasteful sauce that you like so much you feel it should be forbidden and… if your belly can afford to have it, ask for another round already included in the price. And the price, ridiculous, only about 15 €! I paid ~18 € if you with the drink.

This was also a good opportunity to meet Igalians I only knew from Igalia planet and talk more with those I knew before. I was great to share good times with you guys! Apart from my colleagues, I could also meet open source ninjas like Lucas Rocha from EOG.

Hope we can repeat the thrill next year folks!

Yesterday I started the first sessions of Linux Training in Lisbon.

I’ll be teaching this course together with my friend Paulo Cabido for the R&D Center of University of Évora. We’ll be teaching this course to high-school teachers and this constitutes one of the first Linux Academies organized by the Portuguese Ministery of Education.

Hopefully this will represent a more widespread usage of Linux in the Portuguese high-schools as the intentions are to make a viral spread of knowledge — the teachers that are attending these training sessions will themselves give teach other professors and recursivity keeps on…

We Portuguese people are always (just a little) behind the modern Europe.
If you are from a country like the US or the UK, you’re probably used to identify yourself just with your driving license or so, but in Portugal we like PAPER and BUREAUCRACY, so, we have/had a card for pretty much every record the government has of you. For example, I always used to carry with me in my wallet my:
1) ID Card (proofs I am a Portuguese citizen);
2) Driving license;
3) National health card (proofs I am registered in the national health system);
4) Elector card (proofs I can vote and tells people in which town I can do that);
5) “Contributor’s” card (proofs I am registered in the financial system or something like that)
…apart from these I carry also cards for bank account, University and others…! And I never got my social security one (although I am registered in it, of course) or else it would be #6! If I sit with my wallet in my back pocket I get 1 feet taller!

Plus, the old ID card was not the card you might be thinking of (if you’re not Portuguese)… it was a paper card with a plastic cover, see the image bellow:

It had two squares: one for your fingerprint and another for your photo and it was huge!

It had one advantage that is now lost though: if you happen to be falling off a cliff, you could quickly take out your Portuguese ID card, fold it in a hang-glider and escape form death to live a happy life!

But now (well, not so long ago) we got what we call the “Cartão de Cidadão” — Citizen’s Card. It replaces a bunch of them (1, 3, 5 and the missing 6 and eventually will replace the #4)! Yes, what a relief! Today I went to pick mine and I am happy about it! I am no longer ashamed when I show my ID to, for example a Spanish person.

Here’s the card’s design (no, that’s obviously not me in the picture) :

So, to pick my card a lady at the what we call “Civil Register” had me identified using a fingerprint scanner connected to her Windows powered computer. She told me:
“If you like this computer business and stuff, you can buy a card reader and go to this website… then click here… and you can edit your data in your card like your mailing address, etc.”
and I thought: “hmm, will it work in my Linux box?”

Another step towards modern Europe!