Monthly Archives: January 2012

books in your professional life

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Week 3, 2012
Joensuu, Finland

My memories tell me that I always have liked books. However, books for study are another issue. In my first semester on my first University (yes I have been in several of them 🙂 )  my Dad did something I will always be thankful for. He bought me ALL the books I needed for my studies that semester: the text books and the reference books.  Crazy? perhaps. I bet they were no cheap.  Also, I remember he told me something like: now you have all what you need for your studies,  you cannot quit this semester.

At the time I was studying Electronic Engineering at ULSA. The first semester was very hard for me. It is the only semester I remember some part of the schedule:  Monday, Wednesday and Friday my mornings were full: 7-9 Physics, 9-11 Calculus and 11-13 Algebra. Of course I had other lectures at the afternoon, and on Tuesday and Thursdays. But that triplet was unforgettable for me.

I must confess that my Dad did the correct and very intelligent thing getting me the books, because I recall that more than once, when I came back home after that triplet I was ready to quit. But then I looked to the books he bought me, they  REALLY helped me to pass the courses and I felt supported by them. I must acknowledge I also had a very GREAT group of friends 🙂  . But the books played a role in no quitting that specific semester.

Since then, books related to my studies acquire a special meaning. It is as having wise people next to me, explaining me things. Books are just special.

My Dad turn to be an angel in 2011, and still I am digesting his transformation.  In reference to his profession, he was a GREAT civil engineer and passionate learner.  As you might imagine he had a very special library about his profession. We decided to canalise his library so it could support others to learn by spreading knowledge. Some books are actually gems in his field, according to diverse engineers.

My dad was active at the CENAPRED, and we decided they will be at charge of indexing the volumes and canalize them properly.  They just reported us that my Dad donated 746 volumes. Wow! I am so PROUD of my Dad! and very thankful you for this knowledge-addiction that he somehow seed/share/promote with me.

No wonder why I love so much the books in my profession! 🙂 Now, I think I will start to share more about them.

Dad's books donation

Dad's books donation

 

 

 

 

sr is back!

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Week 3, 2012
Joensuu, Finland

Sr is BACK! 🙂 . It arrived via Matkahuolto, complete and sound 🙂  The service of Kampus Data Oy was very good, and I transferred the last backed-up data that I had to Sr from the time machine. Still I have to do some hand work with some of the data we were able to rescue before send Sr to Jyväskylä, but step by step.  Here some photos of the story of re-activating Sr.

Arriving to Matkahuolto package in Joensuu

Arriving to Matkahuolto package in Joensuu to pick up Sr

That is Sr

Here it is, Sr is inside

Sr well packed

Sr well packed

 

The ONLY thing I want to highlight is:  Kampus Data installed Finnish OSX on Sr instead of English. Yes, I know how to change the language on my account, BUT I found interesting that apparently Macs have troubles dealing with languages.

Suomi - English

Suomi - English

 

In anycase I am HAPPY that  Sr. is back.  I want to acknowledge that I have learned a lot of time management with the HP compaq nx 9005 that I had for somedays. Thank you HP! Now it is time to go back to work! 🙂

joining the internet strike by spreading the word

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Week 3, 2012
Joensuu, Finland

My life, as the one of millions or billions of virtual dwellers, is tightly involved with the technology, particularly with the Internet.  For me, the technology is as important as the content that it transmits.

In resent weeks I have been reflecting about information and content. I have experienced different ways in which we handle the information nowadays. Consequently my awareness related to information and its accessibility has been increasing (a post about this will come).  As we all know information is power. Information help us to grow as individuals and as community.

The Internet helps us greatly to transmit information beyond boundaries. Internet serves as an amplifier of creators of content so more individuals can read / listen / watch their information. Therefore, Internet helps us to share information.

As an Internet dweller, I feel the responsibility – and still is my right – to be respectful with the authors of the information that is available, but also to express whatever I want on Internet and to share the information that I want with whom ever I want. I am – still- FREE to do so. Thus, I am against of any attempt of a legislation that attempts to detriment my rights and my freedom. I found unbelievable the initiatives that want to attack the freedom of Internet dwellers. Therefore I want to join, somehow, the actual Internet strike by sharing some information:

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) in US
ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agrement) – in US, Europe, Japan …
Ley Doring in Mexico
Ley Sinde in Spain

The following videos help me to understand the potential implications of previously cited law proposals. The videos explain things differently, however one video is in Spanish (the first one) the second in English.

Spanish:

English:

mac service centre in jyväskylä

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Week 2, 2012
Joensuu, Finland

After working with Sr’s HD the whole Thursday evening and the complete Friday, we declare that Sr’s HD must be changed. For those who use apple computers might be aware that in emergency cases, as this one,  one should contact a MacAuthorize Specialist to keep some warranty (yes a “luxury” of an expensive membership to Mac products). I am located in Joensuu, and the closest Mac Service Centre to my location is in Jyväskylä (~246 km away). Oh man! so we drove over six hours on Saturday only to bring Sr to an authorized “Mac Hospital”.

Driving from Joensuu to Jyväskylä @ ~7:30 am (road 23)

Driving from Joensuu to Jyväskylä @ ~7:30 am (road 23)

Kampus Data Oy - Closest Mac Authorized Centre to Joensuu

Kampus Data Oy - Closest Mac Authorized Centre to Joensuu

Someone could ask me why I did not send Sr via snail-post. I had two  reasons to bring it personally: (1) I did not have the proper package to wrap Sr and (2)  honestly I wanted to talk face-to-face with whom  would be responsible of Sr.

Next Monday I should know what is going on with this story. I hope Sr is back home soon!

By the way, I am writing this post from an almost 10 years old laptop, compaq nx 9005, which is SLOW but working perfectly 🙂 . We looked for a newer laptop at the EdTech lab, but it is nothing available so, learning to work with the resources available. 🙂 Also I want to thank  Mikko for all the support in this Mac  adventure.

reminder…. to back up OFTEN!

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Week 2, 2012
Joensuu, Finland

Last year  Manzanita, my lovely macbook-pro that has been with me since 2005,  in March 2011 its graphic card colapsed. To fixe it I needed a new motherboard (where the graphic card is attached). Other option was to get a new machine.  I went for the second option because Manzanita was already 6 years old, deserving a time to be retired.

Then came Sr. (now my second macbook-pro) which has been working ok. I still miss Manzanita somehow, but adapting to Sr. Suddenly, yesterday Sr’s hard-drive collapse!  🙁 After doing all what we could do to make Sr’s HD to react, now I declare that Sr must go to a Mac Service Center *sight*. That is Jyväskylä, the closest Mac Service center from Joensuu (no comments!).

*sight* It feels so strange to lose so soon my working tool. I still miss Manzanita, which was problem free for over 5 years. Now Sr, an intel machine, got its first headache a bit faster.

I am lucky because with Manzanita I learned to backup. I have backup my data up to Dec. 14th. However, the last things I have done, are not properly saved…. we will see what is the result of this adventure.

Lesson learned:

  1.  It is good to backup.
  2. It is even better to back-up often!

 

Photos no available at the moment, in order to respect the machine that is being lend to me for the following hours…. *sight*