Only with great ideas can you accomplish great things

Not long ago, in a local station, TeleMadrid (know to be right-winged, but you have to read both sides to understand a story) I was watching a program called "Crisis Office". They usually interview important personalities, such as (the reason why I was watching), Mrs.María Garaña, responsible for Microsoft Iberica. The interview came about due to Microsoft's anouncement to cut 5000 positions as a world-wide measure.

I will not dwelve too much on the interview, in which the interviewer was attempting to get Mrs. Garaña to confess that Microsoft was in such dire situation as to have to sack people. This was frustrated by Mrs. Garaña when she explained, in all possible ways, that Microsoft was going to attempt by all means necessary not to have to fire anybody. This fact has been demonstrated.

Following the program's main subject, the host quoted, completely out of context, a piece by Albert Einstein by only mentioning the line "Incompetence is the the true crisis." In spanish, this could be interpreted as a clear criticism to the government and their "blame" in all this.

I will now reproduce the full text, so this sentence can be propertly contextualized and have its meaning restored and just to prove that a mis-contextualized quote can actually go against he who pronounces it. As Natalie Imbruglia once put it: "Second hand opinions don't make you look any smarter".

"Let's not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things.A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation.For all crises bring progress.Creativity is born from anguish.Just like the day is born form the dark night.It's in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies.He who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome.

He who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent,and is more respectful to problems than to solutions.Incompetence is the the true crisis.The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There's no challenge without a crisis.Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony.There's no merits without crisis. It's in the crisis where we can show the very best in us.Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead. Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it."

- Albert Einstein

Therefore, it is the actual incompetence which is in crisis. Those who are not incompetent will see, in this crisis, the oportunity they needed.

Sony eBook reader: How to make eBooks

Yep. Given the acquisition of my new Sony PRS-505 (don't bother, it's still not available on Sony España's site since it's not available on the european market... although there are ways to purchase one, clearly ;-)) I thought I'd write up a small tutorial of what I've hacked from... errr... learnt from what it is and how it works. More specifically, how to create and manage eBooks of almost any format.

The PSR-505 is an electronic book. No more, no less. It has no WIFI, Bluetooth, nor anything like it. Nor does it need it. It does exactly what is says on the tin (and it does it very well). It is a book. Or, to be precise, it's a whole lot of books on the palm of your hand. Its main advantage and the reason why it costs what it costs (apart from being Sony and a not very extended piece of equipment, of course) is it's intelligent ink screen. You cannot explain it, you have to see it to appreciate it. It's an LCD with no back-illumination (that is, it's not tiresome for your eyes), great contrast, resolution and a technology which makes extremely efficient use of the battery (which is why it lasts soooooooo long). It has sockets for SD and (of course) Sony's own MemoryStick. With them it means you carry with you more books than you can read already in your eBook. Carrying even more books means carrying memory cards which don't take much space at all. And it is impossible you'll read them all before your holiday is over... however long your holidays are...

It's comfortable and really easy to use. Technically speaking, once plugged to your USB (from which it gets its charge, you need no extra for that) we are talking about three external drives in which the books are stored in the format you chucked at it, and a bunch of XML files which take care of the library's organization, bookmarkers, etc. Nothing else. Sony's own library management software is... generally defficient and dissapointing. It does the bare minimum. But, of course, it's still early stages.

Another small detail you're not told because they want to increase sales of the battery charger (sold separately, of course) is that it requires the same charge (voltage, polarity and amperage) as the PSP battery charger, so if you have a PSP you can use it's charger for both.

For a much more practical (and useful) management of the library, format conversion and almost anything you need for the eBook, you're better off using Calibre. It is, of course, a child of the Linux culture, and therefore free and open source. The best thing is that it breaks no code, law, convention or anything like it and you can use it with your eBook without loss of warranty, dangerous patching, suspicious hacks nor anything like it.

PRS-505's native format is LRF. It is capable of reading other formats, too, such as PDF, ePub, TXT, RTF, DOC (no, not the new Word 2003/2007 format, but I'm sure it will in the near future...) as well as several picture and music formats. But let's stick with what is important: books.

There are plenty of sources for books (Sadrac's library, the Guttenberg project, eMule, etc). As soon as you do some testing with the PRS-505 you will see that not all come in formats "optimal" and comfortable for reading. Here is the conversion proces starting from a flat-text format. Obviously, you can adapt it to other formats (with a little thought).

As I say, we start with a flat-text file. We open it up in Word (or Open Office), we select the whole text (no worries here, flat text has no styles, but with other formats you will have to bear fonts in mind) and we set the whole thing to Arial 10. We set the margins to the bare minimum (0,5cm x 0,5cm x 0,6cm x 0,6cm) and the page size to about half an A4 (11cm x 15cm). For an easier management of the library, edit the document's properties (Title and Author). Then save as a Word Document (not the new format but the traditional one). From Calibre you can edit the doc's properties but they don't stick

Convert to PDF with Acrobat Pro (or better priced PDF converter).

... Small detail here. Acrobat sometimes (haven't been able to determine if due to version or configuration) will ask if you wish to save the accessibility markers. Strangely enough, in order to get the zoom to work propery on the eBook, you need to choose NO. Don't ask...

Drag and Drop over Calibre and transfer it to the eBook as indicated in the apps documentation (won't re-write a perfectly efficient help document).

Also, you don't have to kiss goodbye all those books you had in LIT format that you could "only read with Microsoft's Reader" on PDAs and (badly) on computers (due to back-illuminated screens). Calibre will allow you to import them "as is" (you then have to ask it to transform them and that's that) and you can enjoy them in your PRS. Of course, you can also export them to other formats for editting, if necessary.

There is also a PRS-700 model which is touch sensitive, but apparently the screen is clearly not as good and therefore not worth the extra dosh.

Any questions?

Latest deviances

Primarily from this past weekend. I will upload the non-artistic photos to the blog of La Esquina probably this evening.

Of Justice and crisis

It's not fair... I hear it so often...

It's not fair that he/she is not what you expected from him/her. Its not fair that he/she does not give you what you ask for without having to ask for it. Its not fair that you don't get all you wish for. Its not fair that the grass is always greener at the other side of the fence. Its not fair to push away someone just because he/she gave you what you needed.

It's not fair that it isn't fair.

What if everything was fair for everybody?

Nobody would ever win a match at any sport, ever.
Couples would not be couples at all, but networks of relationships but no-one would feel betrayed because we would all know it and we would all be doing the same.
We would all earn the same wages and everything we bought would cost the same no matter where you bought it or what make it was.

In movies, the good guys would always win because there would be no baddies! But they would also have nothing to win, either...

The world is not fair. Life is not fair. Justice is impossible when it depends on a point of view. That is why "justice is blind", but that blindness makes justice unjust. That is, assuming any justice is made at all!

And speaking of justice, is it fair that, with the justification (pun intended) of this crisis, the contributor's hard earned money is "given away" to banks? I got a Powerpoint this morning with a series of calculations and numbers which I will not reproduce here since I cannot verify them (Editted: as I thought, the numbers aren't quite as simple as real money being transferred but rather economical arrangements).

What I will mention is the "news piece" I heard this morning on how consumption has decreased an important and worrying percentage because of the crisis, which will only increase crisis. Let us analyze a little.

In Spain, for the last two years they've been critisizing on one side, defending on the other, but basically making plenty of noise about this crisis. Our dear John Doe, who knows little or none at all about national, european or world-wide economy only knows hard times are ahead. What is the normal reaction? One would think it's normal to remove unnecessary expenditures so when the crisis hits home we are at least half prepared, right?

Let's analize a little further...

Before this crisis, the problem was the ever-growing inflation, mainly due to the ever increasing price of homes... but everything has also risen since we got the euro. But right up to the crisis, consumption didn't descend. That means there was more consumption than was normal. But that also needed to stabilize!

You only have to take a walk up any High Street (or, in deed, any mall) to see that CONSUMISM hasn't stopped at all, but our dear John, terrified by the screams of "Crisis! Crisis!!!" has actually begun looking at price-tags.

So why are they surprised at the descent in consumism? Wasn't it what thet were expecting? Isn't it fair?

A little coherence would be welcome.

Everybody is free

Every now and then I look back, in many ways. Today I (re)found a "song" (the guy doesn't actually sing) I heard a long long time ago. Every time I hear it, I hear something that makes me stop and think. See what you can find.

Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen) - Baz Luhrmann

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
Wear sunscreen!
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...
You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

What ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you.

Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...