I wanted to share, with a circle the following video (spoken by Carl Sagan):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw

With Facebook it is trivial: In youtube there is a share button, I click it, a window opens where I can add some comments, I click “Share a link” and voila. It is done: 2 clicks, totally non-intrusive. Notice that a Google product (youtube) is trivial to use with FB.

With Google plus? Start a new browser tab/window, put plus.google.com in the address, copy the video URL from the youtube tab and paste it as a video on plus (choose the video posting button). One could almost make a user manual! Above all it is inconvenient: it requires too much effort for a thing that should be pleasurable.

I know, I know, the plus button is awsomeness. But it is not what I want (and I feel that I am not alone)! I want to be able to share with a group, to show something that I find interesting to my acquaintances/friends/colleagues/whatever. And have a cozy discussion with my pals about what I shared (or what they shared). That is what Facebook is all about to me. Google plus makes it hard.

Arguably the allure of Facebook is the social part of things. Part of it is a more private Twitter, actually a better twitter: you are not limited to 140 characters and the in-line response system is cool (i.e., interacting with your friends). Google+ has that, of course.

But there are other fundamental bits and pieces that G+ misses. Applications (creepy games included) are one. I understand Google’s option (and like it), but it loses a part of the crowd with that decision.

But the biggest problem is the concept of +1. +1 is a completely a-social thing. It goes onto the attic, in-a-place-nobody-cares-to-look! On the other hand Facebook (which also has the like stuff – broadly equivalent to +1) has the great “post to profile” button. There is a quantum leap of difference: You are on a page that you find interesting, post it to your profile, add a comment of your own and bang… your friends see it, they see your opinion, they can pop in and discuss it. Very SOCIAL! Yes, you can do this with G+, but it is very inconvenient: you have to open plus.google.com, and explicitly paste the link. Convenience here is key: Something as easy as the +1 button, but posting to the main G+ page (or circle).

I would venture that a clever tweeting system and the posting of pages justify most of FB allure (and the creepy games also, gnah). Also a more SOCIAL way of liking (+1) things: it is very easy to see people’s preferences and you can also like (and publicise) other FB profiles.

Also, in my profile I can say little about myself on G+: my movies, my religion, my footy club, my music, my political preferences are all out. It is a SOCIAL thing to do. So that people that share similarities to yourself can find you. Also, to make a statement!

And Circles, while being a GREAT idea, does not compensate for the lack of the other stuff (a “post to circle” feature would really be cool).

Of course, an API is also missing (external programmers could solve part of the above, if there was an API). And a few other things. People can say that this is an early release. But, in such a state, G+ will lose steam: it is very inconvenient to do some very simple SOCIAL things! And when these features eventually show up, several users will have lost interest.

I really hope Google puts is act up together. If I had to choose between both companies, undoubtedly I would prefer Google.

Google, get your act together!

Obviously the left column is much more important than the right column. From a debt/GDP ratio Spain is better than all the big other countries. Indeed Portugal is followed by… Germany in the list. But even if you think both columns are equally important, then please compare Spain with the UK in both benchmarks.

Now, why does everybody talk about Spain and not the UK? By the way, US debt (from wiki: “As of March 25, 2011, the Total Public Debt Outstanding of the United States of America was $14.26 trillion and was 97.3% of calendar year 2010 annual GDP”). Estimated deficit for 2010? 8.3%.

And while you are at it, you might want to check the external debt page at wikipedia (order by % of GDP).

Market sentiment (for a laugh):

Recently you have been asked to bail us out. That you should use your hard earned money to help us.

If you are going to help us, I think you are entitled to make some hard questions. And to be quite frank, I do not have any good answers.

You could start by asking why do the Portuguese have 778 road motor vehicles per 1000 inhabitants while you have only 534 (OECD data for 2006). Indeed for 2006 we top the list (in front of the USA (775) known as the car nation). Or ask why we have 1835 Km of motorways (for 10 million inhabitants) while you have only 693 (for approximately half the population size).

If I were you, I would also ask why did we built 10 new pristine stadia for the Euro 2004. Insidiously some of these stadia are completely useless nowadays, being a massive financial burden in some of the municipalities where they were built. Indeed why did we organize the Euro alone when just in 2000, two much richer nations (The Netherlands and Belgium) decided to share the cost between them? Or, in 2008 Austria and Switzerland also decided to share costs.

I would also ask why did we build the longest European bridge (counting with viaducts), in the largest possible place in the Tagus river. Furthermore I would suggest you to investigate the financing strategy of that infrastructure. But you probably can guess: a variation of build now, pay later…

So, why should you bail us out? I do not know. If I were you, I would have my doubts.

But you know what is even more insidious? You are not bailing us out. Here this is going the way of a harsh recession (Greek style). Your money will be directed to pay for the loans that we made. Your money will be mostly saving the very same banks that lent money to us in a irresponsible fashion.

Do you want to know some of the “good” uses that your money will have? While the orders for the EU-ECB-IMF “troika” are still being prepared, a few things have been speculated:

• A reduction in VAT from 23% to 6% for… are you ready… Golf.
• That your money will be used to recapitalise our banks for the stress tests.

Exactly as you read: the exact same banks that be should have had an haircut on their debt holdings are instead getting some of your money!

In due honesty, I think you should protect your hard earned money. But if you are forced by the EU to send “us” (it is not really us, it is our creditors) money, here is a list of suggestions that you might consider impose. You will notice that they are not much different from some of the proposals that some of your skeptic parties make:

• Debt restructuring – Haircuts for the banks. Who lends money irresponsibly should pay a price.
• No caviar – Force people who want to buy a car or a house to make a hefty downpayment. Much of our external debt is private and related to superfluous spending.
• Transparency – There is too much secrecy with bank accounts. Too much tax evasion. Force things in the open!

When you make your rightful demands on your money I would nonetheless ask you to have one thing in consideration: Portugal is the most unequal country of Western Europe. So that you understand: The minimum wage here is 500€/month, but the president of the Bank of Portugal makes 243.000€/year (almost twice the chairman of the American Federal Reserve). I suggest you be vigilant. Actually be double vigilant: when our government proposed a cut on the salaries of Banco de Portugal, the ECB opposed. So, even when we try to correct our mistakes, the EU sometimes becomes the guarantor of the worse things.

I am not at all convinced that the EU+ECB+IMF “troika” will protect either our or your interests.

I look forward to learn more about your continued democratic discussion about this issue. It is clear that you have a rational and sensible approach to this problem. Whatever decision you take, it is deserving of respect, as are all democratic decisions. I respect and envy the quality of your democracy, of your republic. Especially because the first casualty of the EU+ECB+IMF “troika” was precisely our democratic sovereignty. I sincerely hope you never suffer such an humiliation.

With sincere respect and admiration,
Tiago
Update: This was proudly produced in the best Finnish product ever made: Linux

It should come as no surprise the behaviour of the Swedish government in the whole Assange affair. Now as in WWII, Sweden as a tradition of bending over to whatever big power exists. Swedish pragmatism at work. Decency and civilization be damned!

I am not comparing the US with the Nazis. Indeed I happen to have the utmost respect for the only state in the world that was founded with Freedom in its genetic code. But, it is clearly the only superpower left and much of its contemporary behaviour leaves much to be desired and is in direct contradiction with the values of the USA founding fathers. But my point here is not about the US of A.

Imagine if Sweden had some backbone. I am Portuguese, and I am used to my government not having a moral backbone of any kind (see, e.g. the rendition cases and related Wikileaks cables). But I have to confess that I was expecting for Sweden to have improved and learned from its shameful past.

No cigar.

How to solve this? Two options:

1. Install the kernel offered here. This will load the driver for the memory stick AND the modem one. Good enough. Some computers might have a problem with this. For instance, a version previously offered was not able to recognize my touchpad. It this works for you, it is probably the best solution.
2. Do this. The problem with this one is that it is very tricky, especially is Ubuntu tries to automount the disk (which it does). Do like this:
   1. Do the rmmod before installing the dongle. It should either remove the driver or, most probably say it is not loaded – both are good. If it is loaded this means that is is in use. If you cannot find what is making it being loaded then you are stuffed.
   2. Now the tricky (and stinky) part: Connect the dongle and start issuing, on the command line lots of rmmod. The module will load, you are trying to unload it before the automount kicks in. You will notice that most rmmods will say that the module is not loaded, but then one will say that the module was removed. For some reason the module is loaded twice, so you have to see the removal twice (most of the times).
   3. If the automount kicks in before you do rmmod then remove the dongle do rmmod and repeat the steps above.
   4. Do the modprobe

A less stinky solution (this one stinks as hell) might be to disable automount, but then legitimate uses for the automount (memory sticks and such) would be problematic. If you know of a better one, feel free to comment here or give a pointer…

OK, now were are done.

Well, not really. When establishing a connection sometimes Ubuntu (this is probably just a Karmic problem, not related with the kernel) does not pick up the DNS info. So you connect, but cannot use the connection. Just disconnect and reconnect. You might need to do this more than once, but it will eventually pick the DNS info.

Hope this helps.

Furthermore, after the problem above is corrected, many times is fails to get the DNS info on connection.

These are both old problems, that have been solved in the past and have re-emerged.

How serious is this? Most Vodafone dongles (Vodafone is a very big pan-European mobile operator) that I know off show this problem.

How Ubuntu Q&A let this one pass, let alone mark this bug as only of “medium” importance baffles me. The number of normal users that this has the potential to impact is substantially high.