Disabled? No! Superhuman One area where advances in information technology, electronics and mechanics have a positive impact on human activity is to improve the skills, abilities and ways of interacting with our environment. Typically when we speak of a "disabled" individual, we mean a person who has lost or diminished the "ability" to interact in an expected way. For me it is clear that the theoretical capacity we have to interact with "all" our known senses limits the possibilities for developing new and more advanced forms of communication, and increases the capabilities of the senses we have. Watching shows on the Discovery Channel such as “Real Superhumans� makes you realize how the human considered "normal" makes limited use of the senses. One episode shows how a young Swiss, Elizabeth, uses her senses to enjoy music or how Esref, a Turkish painter, blind from birth, creates real works of art full of colors and perspectives. In this issue we address the issue of the "disabled" and how Software Libre-based technologies can be used to allow them to interact with technological developments designed for people using all their senses. You'll read several articles as the one developed by Nerissa Aguilera. Thanks to
her, I met, a little over a year ago, a blind person who works with Software Libre and in particular interacts with the Linux operating system. When my associate editor informed me that the theme of this issue would be the "disabled", she put me in a difficult situation because I've never been sure if the term is correct. Who really are the "disabled"? Those who've lost their sight, or who even with all their senses intact, only use part of them, or those who seek new ways to interact with their environment, finding new wealth in it, or are just happy with what their senses poorly interpret? Thus, contrary to what she expected, I mentioned that I would take some time to think about this and as it coincided with a trip to Mexico related to the ITSON Latinux Certifications Graduate Program, I would think about the editorial between airports and flights. In one of the connections, I saw two women "talking" with sign language and it was clear that feelings and messages were conveyed beyond those expressed with their hands.
vironment. And in my head surface the Discovery Channel program, the two women "talking" at the airport and the "blind" man who Nerissa introduced me and I tell myself: "Disabled? No! The limitations have been imposed by ourselves; they are superhumans".
Ricardo Strusberg (Venezuela) strusberg@latinux.com
Now on a Copa Airlines flight, thinking of ending this editorial by proceeding to render it in "black and white", the pilot announces that we are flying at 35,000 feet over Mexican territory and what resonates in my head is the phrase "we're flying." Flying? And it is clear to me that we are developing technologies (in this case the plane) to overcome the limitations we have set ourselves when we interact with our en-
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Content
Editorial "Disabled? No! Superhuman" Ricardo Strusberg
p. 1
"Setting up a Home Recording Studio with Software Libre" Gustavo Maggi
p. 18
sci-fi Events "Blender's Course: Macuare Foundation" María "tatica" Leandro
p. 4
"God from the Machine" Christian Bogado Marsá
p. 20
tips & tricks
In touch p. 6
"Blender: Making grass in 3D" María "tatica" Leandro
p. 24
"Lenin Hernández" Lauretta "An Accessible World" Nerissa Aguilera Arteaga
p. 8
"Knowing Ubuntu" Pablo Navarro
p. 26
The hidden side of technology
Difussion Zone "Green IT" Marlon Dutra
p. 12
"Get Back" Xpectro
p. 14
Page Page
2 2
"Nuclear Weapons" Diego Maggi
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p. 28
Content
Comicnology
p. 30
Next events
p. 31
Directory
p. 32
Editor in Chief Ricardo Strusberg Associated Editor Mariana Henríquez Illustrator and Graphic Design Laura Vigo Graphical collaboration María “tatica” Leandro Magazine's layouts Gustavo Maggi Translation Martha Romero Pedro Bernardez Administration Jacqueline Pérez de Strusberg E-mail Subscription María Zamora For local contacts: brasil@latinuxmagazine.com chile@latinuxmagazine.com colombia@latinuxmagazine.com puertorico@latinuxmagazine.com republicadominicana@latinuxmagazine.com mexico@latinuxmagazine.com uruguay@latinuxmagazine.com usa@latinuxmagazine.com venezuela@latinuxmagazine.com
LATINUX CLUSTER Sponsored by: Latinux Cluster The Cluster Latinux is an enterprises, educational institutions and consultants network specialized in solutions based in free technologies, including consulting and training for these solutions. At the same time, it focuses in consulting, support, maintenance, developing and enterprises solutions installation services based in free technology worldwide. Inside business opportunities opened from Latinux, one is to cover the no satisfied demand from organizations, companies and governments related to free software development and the chance to take advantage of products and services with a specific local success or in a whole conglomerate acting area.All Latinux participant enterprises are well established in their own working area and all have a long experience with free technology.
LATINUX PRESS Published by: Latinux Press, a division of Latinux Inc. Address: Av. Samuel Lewis, Edificio Central, PH. Panamá, República de Panamá. Phone: + 1 305 5171853. Email: info@latinuxpress.com
Latinux Magazine is not responsible for the published content. The referred information it's author's responsability and/or collaborators mentioned here.
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events
Blender's Course: Macuare Foundation
In 2008, Macuare Productions sent out a public call to all Venezuelan ar-
CREATING THE 3D ARTISTS VENEZUELAN COMMUNITY WITH SOFTWARE LIBRE
tists who had experience in areas such as drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic design and 2D or 3D animation (highly desirable) for the production of "Native Stories" , a project born from the company's interest to venture into the realm of 3D animated productions promoting valuable culture stories such as the legends of indigenous peoples in Venezuela.
Their intensive Blender course became an unforgettable experience for the group of forty-five lucky people who could attend. On a constant exchange of knowledge, culture and fellowship, we were able to appreciate the infinite scope this tool offers. Many had already worked with Blender, some not, but all put our best to maximize the educational will of our basic level teachers, Xavier Araque, David RodrĂguez and Ernesto del Valle; and of our advanced level teachers, Pablo VĂĄzquez, Claudio Andaur and Daniel Salazar; these are the only instructors certified by the Blender Foundation in Latin America. In those days full of professionalism that started at 8:00 am and ended at 5:30 pm, we experienced friendship and a great deal of Blender, often until dawn. The city of San Cristobal, in Tachira, Venezuela, where the course took place, was named the official birthplace of the Venezuelan Blender community. It led to a further invitation to all those enthusiasts of 3D design, animation and rendering to join this excellent initiative to further promote the use of free tools Page
in our country. Why Blender? Blender is taking the lead in the 3D design world for a large number of features that make it unique. Its interface (which many find difficult at first) provides a highly customizable and consistent workspace, which allows users to use the entire software effectively and efficiently. Likewise, modeling has a large amount of pre-designed screens, sculpted arrays and real-time Boolean switches. It also enables rapid creation of skeletons (armatures) and release of movement by weight and deformation by volume. Blender is also an excellent animation engine for game development and rendering. Sound and video editing tools are also embedded in the application itself. These features have allowed it to become one of the most often-used tools in the world of 3D. Course topics During the first week an entry-
level workshop was taught, facilitated by Xavier Araque and Ernesto Del Valle. The second week, three advanced and specialized workshops were delivered. Each participant had the option of choosing one of the three advanced levels.
BASIC LEVEL - Introduction to the Blender environment and working methodology - Basic Topology - Modeling - Texturing, Materials and Colors - Armature and Rigging (skeletons) - Animation - Rendering
ADVANCED LEVEL - Modeling and shading Workshop Advanced - Rigging and character animation Workshop - Advanced - Composition, lighting, rendering, work-flow Workshop - Advanced
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events
“Native Stories” Project "Native Stories” is an animated television series that will consist in twelve indigenous legends adapted as threeminute short films under the auspices of CONATEL, Macuare Foundation and Studio Free 3D. It is aimed at children between 2 and 12 years of age. The series wants to show, mainly to non-indigenous children, part of the culture of indigenous people living in Venezuela, promoting, early on, cultural diversity, respect for native cultures and an incentive for social inclusion based on mutual recognition. It has been planned for a development period of eight months. During this time, the team of artists will work in facilities located in StudioFree 3D in San Cristobal, Tachira, Venezuela.
María “tatica” Leandro (Venezuela) tatica@fedoraproject.org
REFERENCES Macuare Foundation: www.macuare.org/ Images made using Blender: - "Sweet Feast" - Bertrand Benoit (VRay Render) - "Old Guy" - Kamil (maqs) Makowski (www.blender.org/features-gallery/gallery/art-gallery/), -María"tatica"Leandro (www.flickr.com/photos/ttadbb/sets/721 57613879453535/),
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Lenin Hernández
“ I find attractive the idea of a world where knowledge is free and not a prisoner”, Lenin Hernández. Mr. Hernández has been a GNU / Linux user for six years, and has worked exclusively on Software Libre in the Debian distribution community for five. He is an organizer of the fifth "Debian Day" in Caracas and other Software Libre events in different parts of Venezuela, and a staunch advocate of free knowledge. "Within Software Libre, everything; outside Software Libre, nothing" (Lenin Hernández). Lauretta: What is the lure of Software Libre according to Lenin Hernandez? Lenin: “From any point of view freedom is attractive. The Software Libre philosophy appeals to more people than we think. The ability to share software without being penalized or prosecuted for doing so, the opportunity to study and investigate software to the point where we can improve and innovate it, the idea of a world where knowledge is free and not a prisoner of any patent or corporation is an idea I find attractive”. Lauretta: What distinguishes Debian from other distributions? Lenin: "The Debian Project is developed collaboratively by volunteers from around the world who subscribe to Debian's public philosophical and technical outlines. As they do this willingly, the Debian policy becomes a social contract. Thanks to a working model and sustainable collaborative development, the Debian distribution is technically a job very well done. It has an excellent package manager (software) that is cons-
available for fifteen different hardware architectures, and every day this number grows with the support of more volunteers who join the project. Not all distributions have an ever-growing community like the one that strives to improve Debian as far as it can. Some do documentation, other translate software and documentation into other languages, other package software, some develop software, some organize events with the aim of spreading Debian" . Lauretta: Why everybody should use this distribution? Lenin: "I do not think everyone should use Debian. I believe that all people are free to use the distribution to their liking, one that technically and morally makes them feel happier. I personally use and defend Debian, and invite as many people as I can to look into the Debian project and its philosophy and encourage them, if possible, to try and use it. We often use the term "Debiani-
tantly in development. We have around twenty-five thousand software packages
zing" in this context, which refers to the action of installing Debian, either on
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LINUX USER WORDS their laptops or their computers, so that they may begin to use the distribution. We do this on request." Lauretta: Why are the distributions essential to the future of GNU-Linux? Lenin: "They are essential because thanks to them we were able to put together a uniform and efficient amount of incredible software, including the heart of the operating system (Linux). Without the distributions and the people behind them we would have a lot of software without a friendly way of installing, using and configuring it. Basi-
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cally, without them, Software Libre would be difficult to access for non-ex-
ware solution vendors for a business, or spending huge amounts of money for
perts. " Lauretta: How often does Debian hold the event? Is it a global celebration? What type of activities are developed there? Lenin:"Debian Day" in Caracas, Venezuela is done once a year as an anniversary celebration of the Debian project. There have been five consecutive editions. They are an initiative to promote and encourage the use of a distribution of GNU / Linux which, day after day, has become popular in servers and workstations in the public sector, thanks to the legal framework that we have in Venezuela , on the "Priority use of Software Libre with Open Standards", established in the 3390th presidential decree. Debian Day in Venezuela aims to bring Software Libre to students and professionals in the technology sector. In fact, Debian Day is a worldwide celebration in different cities, in which communities or groups of users take advantage of the anniversary project to promote events, installation's festivals, demonstrations, workshops and, above all, to share and learn. " Lauretta: What do you mean by "emancipating the Debian philosophy"? Lenin: "To promote and disseminate the fact that Software Libre can be studied and developed by anyone, if we just try. We should not be satisfied in being soft-
software, our servers and our workstations (PCs or laptops), but we can engage in great projects that enrich us technically and professionally . Lauretta: From your perspective, what's your opinion of Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds? Lenin: "Undoubtedly Richard Stallman has been leading a movement to which I belong, and to which Linus Torvalds also joined giving appropriate technical input, all of which led to what today is something palpable and justified: Software Libre". Lauretta: Are you familiar with the Technological Studies and Research Institute for Higher Learning (ISEIT)? What do you think about the activities it promotes? Lenin: "Indeed I do, same with the Software Libre community in Venezuela. They do a good job and I think they have a very clear vision and love for Software Libre. They've always provided their locations for Software Libre events and meetings and have worked to broadcast them in Venezuela. The Software Libre community hopes they continue contributing to our everyday common cause. " Lauretta (Venezuela) lauretta@latinuxmagazine.com
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An Accessible World
It is no secret that computers have become an inseparable companion for almost everyone. Our digital devices help us to be in constant touch with our friends and distant relatives, remind us of appointments and commitments, and help us with so many other tasks that any attempt to list them would be fruitless. The idea of this article is to elucidate what free tools exist to help people with certain disabilities access a computer. It is part of our efforts at "An Accessible World", a non-profit organization dedicated to helping those with disabilities lead better lives. It is difficult to write in the space of only one article all about the Software Libre tools that already exist for people with disabilities, so I have extended the topic over several installments. Each one deals with tools for different types of disabilities. In this article I will discuss typhlotechnology and motor disability aids. Typhlotechnology (from the Greek "typhlo-", "blind") is technology applied to the field of visual impairment. There are two broad types of visual impairment: total blindness, in which the affected can't see at all, and residual vision or reduced vision, in which the affected can see with more or less difficulty. Each type of deficiency requires particular considerations when thinking about accessibility. For example, for a completely blind individual, the graphic details of a desktop environment are of minimal importance even though knowing what is on the screen isn't. One way to do this is through a screen reader, such as Orca, integrated with every program. Orca is an application develo-
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ped in Python that identifies and relays to the user everything on displayed onscreen. It is a free, flexible and powerful assistive technology whose reader / reviewer tool can scan the screen and transmit the information, either through voice synthesis or through BrlTTY (which allows the information to be sent to an updatable
AN ACCESSIBLE WORLD: SOFTWARE LIBRE AND DISABILITY touch-sensitive braille display). Orca Screen Reader Preferences in CANAIMA Gnome-Orca access speech synthesis uses what is known as voice synthesizers or engines, such as GnomeSpeech or Festival. Each synthesizer includes male and female voices (in Spanish). Festival is one of the most comprehensive free synths; you can play back clearly all the texts in Spanish that are shown onscreen. For its part, GnomeSpeech incorporates the latest speech synthesis technologies into the most recent Gnome libraries. For a screen magnifier, Orca uses Gnome-mag, which provides automatic focus tracking and fullscreen magnification to help users with low vision. You can also use other magnifiers such as KMagnifier (kmag) in Gnome.
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Screen Magnifier Gnome-mag on CANAIMA
There is a also a gnome-accessibility-themes package that includes seven desktop themes, specially adapted for accessibility, that allow users to ascertain and modify the appearance of the desktop in a consistent and comprehensive way. It works by using combinations of light contrast to highlight different areas of the desktop, and includes tools for enlarging text. It depends on gtk2-engines-highcontrast to function. So far we have described free accessibility tools related to visual impairment. It is interesting to list some other free applications oriented to motor disability. Dasher Dasher is an application able to replace a conventional keyboard with a hand-operated device such as a mouse or joystick, or with eye or head movements. It does so through the use of appropriate hardware (with the clarification that the latter is not econo-
High contrast theme CANAIMA
Dasher: apply for people with motor disabilities
mically affordable ), and achieves a speed close to the use of a keyboard. Figure # 3 demonstrates the use of Dasher on GNU / Linux CANAIMA using a joystick.
managing the desktop or closing and opening applications with voice commands. This scenario changed with the staging of GnomeVoiceControl, which in its latest version has Spanish phonemes. For GnomeVoiceControl to work in Debian (or CANAIMA), the installation of the speech recognition engine called PocketSphinx is necessary. In addition to the outreach activities explaining the tools that exist in Software Libre for people with disabilities, as described in the preceding paragraphs, the members of "An Accessible World" perform other activities meant to help the disabled. To this end we have formed five (5) work teams which I will describe below: Diffusion: a team whose goal is to explain the existence of these technologies not only to people with disabilities but also to institutions, organizations, commu-
Mousetrap This application, oriented to people with reduced mobility, is being developed by Flavio Premoli Percoco, a member of "An Accessible World". Mousetrap is an application that lets you move the mouse cursor with head movements using a web-cam.
Voice Recognition These applications are very important for people with reduced mobility and allows them to work with the computer using only a microphone. Until recently there wasn't an application that correctly recognized voice input from a microphone to create text documents,
nities and the general public through lectures, articles, demonstrations, work-
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proving, increasing and developing the quality of the knowledge, skills and attitudes of people with disabilities. Currently we are currently working with a training plan called "Trainer of trainers in Software Libre for people with disabilities". You would be wrong in thinking, however, that you can't help to create "An Accessible World". Just contact us an choose to participate in any one of the outlined areas. Remember that there is no need to be a programming guru; all you need is the desire to help.
Nerissa Aguilera Arteaga (Venezuela) nagui@mundoaccesible.org.ve Delivering a computer to Pedro in Carupano, Sucre, Venezuela
Documentation: a team whose responsibilities include data collection, review, analysis and subsequent publication in our wiki project. A wiki is a collaborative documentation project; there you will find general information, tips and installation guides. The idea is to make available to those in need information on the topics covered in this article. Development: a team whose activities range from improving existing accessibility tools to creating new ones. Training: a team that develops several methodological proposals aimed at imPage
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mundoaccesible.org.ve
shops, forums and similar activities. This article is part of that effort. “Monthly Free Computer" Program: a social responsibility program that aims to facilitate or provide delivery of a computer with Software Libre to low-income college students with disabilities.
LATINUX
cluster
www.latinux.com
Diffusion Zone
Green IT
"Man has produced more garbage in the past fifty years than since his creation to fifty years ago." ... "To use resources well means higher efficiency and higher efficiency means more economy, which in turn means less environmental impact, and here we go "... (Marlon Dutra) What is Green IT? In my opinion, there is no clear definition of what "Green IT" means. Much has been said about it lately, from the standpoint of "social responsibility". We could say that is a current issue, especially for all matters relating to the environment today. When we talk about technology and the environment, we can tackle it through different guidelines: 1) Consumption of electricity It is common knowledge that computers are excellent heaters which also expend energy. Unfortunately, much of the energy consumed by computers is wasted as heat, as in an incandescent lamp. In addition to this major problem, a computer, to run well, needs to be at an ambient temperature of 25Ëš C with low humidity. Since a computer generates heat which is bad for it, it still needs to spend energy to cool. Amazingly, it often takes more energy to cool computers than in making them work. We call energy efficiency the
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relationship between electricity consumption and energy lost as heat. The electronics industry has made considerable progress in this field in recent years. But however great that progress is, we know that 100% efficiency is something physically impossible. If nothing miraculous happens in the coming years, we wouldn't be far off in saying that we are reaching the limits of efficient electronic equipment. Then, what remains for us to do is to make a conscious use of such energy-efficiet equipment. The industry is doing its part, researching ways to devise increasingly efficient energy consumption; the ball is now in the users' court. With ever-cheaper computers began a strong culture of inefficient use of resources. It is quite common to see customers with fifty servers running services that could easily be performed by twenty. It would be like using a giant bus to drive a few people; 95% of the total weight would be the bus itself. Nobody wants to spend energy on a computer, but this is done on the services it offers.
ECO- CONSCIENCE Similarly, people don't waste gas in their car just to drive through the streets; they do it to get somewhere. The computer, as well as a bus or car, is the means, not the end. Even on the issue, we also see that the world is paying dearly for absurd comfort, leaving their computers on 24 hours-a-day without need. In addition to its own consumption, it takes more energy to cool the rooms where they are placed. 2) Planned obsolescence: One of the worst problems of modern industry is planned obsolescence of equipment. Increasingly, we use things for less time, and not just in electronics (but with almost everything else). The "manufactured" idea that the life cycle of a computer is about three years is totally absurd, because a computer can be useful much longer. On this issue specifically, the industry is the most evil. To keep the capitalist machine running, you cannot stop consumption. The software industry, hand-in-hand with the hardware one, plays its role, of course, with increasingly slower and heavy software forcing people to think
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Diffusion Zone
that their computer no longer works. A classic example of that is Windows Vista; of course it would be unfair to just blame Microsoft for that, because this has been a common tactic for years in various industries ‌ Where is all this technological garbage going? There are two serious problems with that. The first is the fact of making a new device, which consumes more natural resources, such as plastics come from petroleum, metals, semi-conductors, many electric power production, water, etc.. The second problem is the trash itself. There is way to reverse 100% the process of manufacturing a product, making it back to its raw material. The recycling of materials has advanced a lot at this point, but there will always be waste rotting somewhere else, and certainly will be many, many years before it disappears. Food for thought: Man has produced more garbage in the past fifty years than since his creation to fifty years ago. The unbridled equipment manufacturing and its consumption is that brings the consequent obsolescence of the oldest is something "very good" for the economy, because it creates jobs, income and economic wheel keeps turning. One need not be very smart to know that industry and governments will always put forward the economic
factors before the environmental factors. It has always been like this and it will never stop being what it is. The problem is finding a balance between the two. 3) Employment of toxic components in the industry Another important point is the use of toxic materials like lead and mercury in the manufacture of equipment. With the advance of technology and the entire environmental movement worldwide, the industry is pushing to get rid of these materials in their products, especially in plastics manufacturing. Our service is focused, in great part, on our customers' infrastructure. Our role as consultants is to convince the customer to make a conscientious use of resources. For the customer, the economic factor comes first. To use resources well means higher efficiency and greater efficiency means more economy, which in turn means less environmental impact, and we can take it from there on. When we carry out an infrastructure project, we always go for maximum efficiency, taking full advantage of what the
equipment can offer. If we run a service with five servers, never would we recommend the purchase of eight. It is very important to understand that all these points are connected in some way. If individuals and / or companies wish to have any environmental awareness, it is always important to think of everything and not stop at a few specific things, as is often the case. Marlon Dutra (Brasil) marlon@propus.com.br
ti
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Diffusion Zone
Get Back
09/09/09. The date came and went from our lives leaving two events to remember: the Beatles reappeared, complete and remastered, and a new Tim Burton film premiered in theaters. One is a return to the past that keeps coming back for more; the other, an event that marks the beginning of an era in which machines, somehow, become necessary in order to experience reality.
09/09/09 BACKWARDS AND FORDWARDS
I write as the wall behind me is
that decided to retreat, not to play live,
day's digital cinema technology. I can
illuminated with drawings and animations, and the room is filled with songs and lyrics from Yellow Submarine. I have dedicated my digital animation class as a tribute, so that this new generation has the opportunity to see the "C" side of the Liverpool band's work. The children's faces are full of surprise since history is not entirely linear, and the melodies remind them of their parents (Or grandparents, should I say?). Some murmur the songs although most don' t generally sing. The stores are filled again with the band's audio work. And who will go for it? Will this new generation, already accustomed to downloading and sharing music, want to invest money in a box of fond memories made two generations ago, that made the next fall in love with it because the previous one put it into every space that it could, and because it is just an excellent work? It's in our veins ... but for the new generation... is it the same? While the Stones are still ahead, the sweet Beatles have become the perfect example of what the music industry was. A wonderful band
delivering albums and filming all the time (Paul would certainly adore Twitter and Facebook). A wonderful band which lives in the hearts and minds of its fans and in stores through the packaging and the limitations of traditional industrial production. Yesterday, while walking in downtown Bogotรก looking for a book by Wu Ming called 54, which like many things disappeared after a while, I reached a record store where a gentleman asked about the 09/09/09 compilation and, as it was impossible to have it at the time, he was settling for previous editions because, in the words of the vendor, they were no different from the one that would be released the next day. And indeed, he wasn't lying. So I saw him leaving with two limited-edition boxes that contained previously released remastered versions in both stereo and mono. And he was happy. I confess that I hope the rumor of the relaunch of Star Wars episodes IV, V and VI in 3D is real. Funny to see the adventure in an environment which takes advantage of to-
even see how some crazy people will go to theaters to repeat the drama of a screaming DiCaprio saying he's king of the world now that 3D Titanic is launched. But what about the Beatles? What's new this time around? Meanwhile, Burton premiered 9, a film he produced and, as many local fans did not know, marked a milestone in visual history by using QR Codes on their posters. For those unfamiliar with them, a QR code is a cryptic black and white symbol that, if seen with a camera over one megapixel and a device that runs special software, can be deciphered. That is, if you have the proper cell phone, you can know what the little drawing means. And that's the way the film's marketing campaign was done. Taxis and posters shared the cryptic messages that only a new type of digital glasses can show us. For many, it was nothing. For others, it was intriguing and lead to research. And clearly, for a minority, it was clear from the outset. This was not for the first time this occurred, nor the first time for a mo-
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Diffusion Zone
vie, but this time, someone popular made them stand out at the same time the Beatles released their box set. Along with the box and the hidden messages, something else made its appearance. It was the latest version of Rock Band, that video game where players relive their favorite rock tunes by impersonating their favorite bands. In this case, it was the Beatles. And it is here where things take shape. While the game is addictive by itself, as is already proven with previous editions, the continual listening of the songs themselves will make many, both fans and uninitiated, explore the Beatles' universe, music, stories and, finally, what they were proposing. And all it takes to get us there is a video game console. As previous editions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero have shown, more players buy the songs after being exposed to them. But there are in fact some who have protested the concept of the game: in their minds, it degrades the classic Beatles songs by transforming them into a banal experience. But I disagree with this view. Seeing the faces of my students at this point (some are sleeping), I feel that what Paul and Ringo did on 09/09/09 was to provide two windows to their music, one of them a new and refreshing way to seduce a slee-
vinyl generation. And the funny thing is that, after hours on the screen as video game characters, maybe these friendly longhaired guys can miraculously move the screen generation to get one of those box sets. In the end, they cost little more than those games for their hungry and expensive video-games machines. Only time will show whether the 09/09/09 strategy worked. Worst case scenario, we'll have watched 9 and, upon arriving home, played "In My Life" on our speakers before going to sleep. Because the more this world changes, the more it stays the same. There really is nothing you can know that isn't known. Remember: nothing is Beatle-proof. Xpectro (Colombia) xpectro@gmail.com Twitter: xpectro
ping generation. An update for the screen generation and support for the
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agazine.com
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Diffusion Zone
Setting up a Home Recording Studio with Software Libre
The problem is that these programs are traditionally in the form of expensive proprietary software, and although they are not a wildly high investment, they may be inaccessible for many musicians. But not all software is lost! In recent libre years, the Software Libre community has developed increasingly complex and sophisticated alternatives. They allow all players access to this technology through the GPL license, enabling not only its free use, but also the possibility of being able to adjust it to their needs and share it with the community for further improvement. This initiative by the Software Libre community is being coordinated largely by the Linuxaudio.org consortium (http://www.linuxaudio.org), a nonprofit organization composed of individuals,
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businesses and institutions that use Linux for audio-related tasks. Some of the software alternatives offered are referenced in the attached table.
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USING SOFTWARE LIBRE TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CREATIVITY
linuxaudio.org
The digital age and advances in audio and video processing now make it possible to have a fairly complete virtual home recording studio on a computer. Professional musicians already have powerful audio processing software to produce high-performance demos and synchronize audio and video from the comfort of their own home.
This list is a small sample of all the alternatives offered by Software Libre in audio material. In future editions we will be delving into each one, explaining their functionality, their advantages and disadvantages and, through tutorials, how to use them.
See you next issue!
Gustavo Maggi (Venezuela) gustavom@scandicus.net www.scandicus.net
Diffusion Zone
Specialized Linux Distributions for Audio and Multimedia Work
Canorus
canorus.berlios.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
64Studio
www.64studio.com
Denemo
www.denemo.org
Ubuntu Studio
www.ubuntustudio.org
Lilypond
lilypond.org/web
dyne:bolic
www.dynebolic.org
pure:dyne
code.goto10.org/projects/puredyne
Audio Editors and DAWs (Digital Audio Workstaions)
Audio Programming Languages Chuck
chuck.cs.princeton.edu
Csound
www.csounds.com
Audacity
audacity.sourceforge.net
Pure-Data
puredata.info
Ardour
ardour.org
Rtcmix
music.columbia.edu/cmc/RTcmix-4.0beta
Rosegarden
www.rosegardenmusic.com
Frinika
frinika.appspot.com
JAMin
jamin.sourceforge.net/en/about.html
VSTi (Virtual Studio Technology) 4Front ProAudio VST/VSTi
Audio / Video Synchronization
BEAST
beast.gtk.org
Bristol
sourceforge.net/projects/bristol
Aeolus
www.kokkinizita.net/linuxaudio
Qsynth
qsynth.sourceforge.net/qsynth-index.html
API - Application Programming Interfaces jackaudio.org
JACK Effects Jack Rack
jack-rack.sourceforge.net Plugins
Drivers ALSA
www.alsa-project.org
Open Sound
www.4front-tech.com/oss.html
FreeBoB
freebob.sourceforge.net/index.php/Main_-
LV2
Radio Broadcasting
lv2plug.in Secuencers
Midish
caoua.org/midish
Qtractor
qtractor.sourceforge.net/qtractor-index.html
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Samplers
www.campware.org Score Editors
www.gstreamer.net
GStreamer
Synthesizers
Campware
www.opensound.com/proaudio.html
Qsampler
qsampler.sourceforge.net/qsamplerindex.html
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God from the Machine
For transhuman thinking, nanotechnology, genetics, computing and their various links represent the best bet for humanity to transcend its limitations. The free use of them to eliminate involuntary suffering, including death, is one of its major arguments. So is the proactive search for technological singularity, the time when computer development comes to exceed the capacity of human processing and can improve itself.
In one of the first epics recorded by mankind, Endiku describes what terror means by mentioning the underworld: in the "House of Dust", the dead wear feathers and eat clay in a perpetually dark nightmare land. His great friend, king and a god on Earth, Gilgamesh of Uruk, then undertakes a heroic but unsuccessful quest to distant lands to gain immortality. It is no coincidence that one of the first things the man has recorded with the written word is its almost universal longing for eternal life. Some have even stated that the reason behind History is nothing more than the natural conflict between our infini-
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te desires and our finite life. Even one who says that immortality would be boring is a believer in some kind of immortality: life after this one in any form, or life through their creations across the nation or humanity. Without the possibility of permanence, our efforts become useless and absurd.
TRANSHUMANISM God, fighting against fate is not a lost cause. For transhumanism, immortality is not only desirable but possible on an empirical level. Sometimes with blind optimism, transhumanist thought believes that through our greatest merit, culture and its practical manifestation, the technique, we are not only are able to achieve better and longer lives, but to conquer new evolutionary steps and ensure the establishment of a posthuman life, product of our artifices.
For a group of theorists, activists and intellectuals, the aspirations of Gilgamesh weren't just illusions. Contrary to what Utnapishtim advises the King-
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Futurists and the Enlightened The word itself comes from "transitory human", a conceptual state somewhere between humanity and the hypothetical posthuman. The term has come to shelter a set of ideas more or less uniform and clearly applicable to the recent debate on technoethics. Based on the humanist considerations of the Renaissance consolidated during The Enlightenment, usually allied to notions of liberal democracy and of a deeply individualistic nature (hyper-individualistic for its detractors), transhumanism was born of the debates of the 1980s futurists. Its ethical considerations update and outweigh many humanist ones. Instead of anthropocentrism, biocentrism. However, the desire for improvement in every living thing doesn't imply its con-
servation in a "natural" state, a concept difficult to define and used as a shield argument for "bioconservatives" opposed to change through technology. Approximately eight thousand years after Gilgamesh departed on his quest, incredible advances in technology have given real hope for its empirical possibility. Arguably transhuman status has been reached by a large majority of humans with access to advanced technologies. The world average life expectancy has doubled since the time of the Sumerians, and in some places has tripled. Organ transplants, highly advanced therapies, various prostheses and implants achieve real improvement in the lives of more and more people around the world. Michael Jackson and the huge market of plastic surgery are two mani-
festations of a trend towards changing aesthetics that could be considered transhuman. One of the first to proclaim himself transhumanist, futurist American-Iranian author FM-2030 changed his name to the first two initials of his old name and the year of his hundredth birthday, when hypothetically technology would allow indefinite longevity. FM-2030 died in 2000 of complications from pancreatic cancer, but his remains have been safeguarded as he desired: he has been cryogenized by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation with hopes that, sometime in the future, technological advances will permit his resuscitation.
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Step into the Valley of the Gods For transhuman thinking, nanotechnology, genetics, computing and their various links represent the best bet for humanity to transcend its limitations. The free use of them to eliminate involuntary suffering, including death, is one of its major arguments. So is the proactive search for technological singularity, the time when computer development comes to exceed the capacity of human processing and can improve itself. The highest aspirations of the movement seem to be remote enough as to remain being part of science fiction. Immortality may be achieved through the transfer of human consciousness into a machine, or by developing advanced genetic or nanomachines. However, none of these technologies exist in the experimental field. Castles in the Ether There is no shortage of religions and movements in the past which have promised similar things. Critics of these theories abound, ranging from those who consider those aspirations impossible to those who consider them undesirable. The literature of science fiction is full of stories that seek to warn about its evils.
dict and anticipate inventions such as nuclear weapons and the landing on to the moon. For others, like Francis Fukuyama, celebrated author of The End of History and The Last Man, the capacity to divide society definitively, throug genetic engineering, makes transhumanism "the world's most dangerous idea". The End of the Tragedy If all transhumanist aspirations could be achieved and we could actually go beyond our limitations, millions of years into the future, when the last stars have burned away, some kind of humanity might still exist. The "omega point", or the ultimate state that follows the apparent tendency of nature to acquire higher levels of consciousness, could theoretically finally make the dream of the Sumerians and transhumanists. Those descendants of humanity would at last, in an absolute way, have control over destiny itself. Christian Bogado Marsรก (Venezuela) inverso@gmail.com
It is difficult to know if this is possible. Thousands of times great technological marvels have been promised, techno-utopias that ultimately were not performed. A counter-argument is that, on occasion, it has been possible to pre-
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Blender: Making grass in 3D
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The first thing we should do in Blender is to adjust our working space. We should change the menus' organization and edit views to suit our needs. To generate a 3dimensional figure we need a plane mesh. Place the mouse pointer in the editing window, press spacebar and select Add -> Mesh -> Plane. This will cause a flat, square figure to appear. The leaves of grass will "sprout" from this "lawn". (Lawn). (See picture No. 1). Since each blade of grass will sprout from a vertex (point of release), we need our plane to be subdivided into many vertices. To do this, first
BLENDER: LEADING THE 3D WORLD enable Mesh Editing mode by pressing TAB. This will highlight all the corners on the plane. The toolbar will have changed; locate the "Subdivide" button in the Mesh Tools section and press it about four times to subdivide the plane a number of times. The mesh is now ready (See picture No. 2). With the mesh ready, let's add the particle system that will generate the grass. Move from a plane view to a frontal view by pressing the "1" key on the NumPad (you can switch to top view with "7"). Then go to the Particles menu and add a new mesh system. (See picture No. 3) Now change the particle system from Emitter to Hair; increase the Amount (Number) to 5000 and at the
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Physics section (Physics), modify the parameters as shown in picture No. 4. It seems nothing has happened, but if you press TAB again with the mouse pointer over the Edit window, you'll see that the plane now has some grassy pistils protruding from it. (See picture No. 5). Now we have to give color and depth to the leaves of grass, so switch to the Materials tab and edit the color parameters. Add a new color object in Links and Pipeline and add color. Then go to the the Strands section and edit the beginning and ending sizes . (See picture No. 6)
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Switch to the Ramps tab (just across the Materials flap) and generate a color gradient to make the grass more realistic. Press the Colorband button. After we get the colors, we can add more color sections if we wish. (See picture No. 7). So there you have it: 3-D grass in a simple way with Blender.
Happy drawing! :D Maria "tatica" Leandro (Venezuela) tatica@fedorapeople.org
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Knowing Ubuntu
A FIRST LOOK AT UBUNTU
Hi everyone! My name is Pablo Navarro Guerra. I am a medical student at North Catholic University in Coquimbo, Chile, and I have been using Ubuntu for two years. You are probably asking yourserlves what makes a student from a career fairly removed from technology write about GNU / Linux. I myself don't know either XD. No, seriously. I will try, from a general perspective, to introduce the beginning user in Linux, educate through tutorials on the alternatives available and comment on the latest developments in the Linux universe. Migrating from one operating system to another can be frustrating, even disappointing if we have no prior experience. This is reflected when trying to do something basic: finding the web browser or office suite. And to make it "worse", the names are not the same. In
use frequently, programs whose names we don't even know in GNU / Linux.
more than one occasion I have lent my notebook to classmates, Windows users all their life, and it takes less than 30 seconds for them to ask: where is "Explorer"? . That's the reason for this tutorial, focused on the rookie user who does not know how to use this operating system. I wanted to focus it towards the basics: where are the programs and what are the alternatives to these programs we
tion, because it's something very simple that does not require much knowledge. We assume Ubuntu has been installed on our computer. The first time we load our system we'll see image No. 1. This desktop environment consists of:
- A desk, where we can locate folders and documents. Moreover, if we click the right mouse button and select "Change desktop background" we can set it up, changing icons, text buttons, windows. (See image No. 2). - Two panels, one at the upper side and one at the lower side. On the lower one are our windows, and on the upper one we can add little applications that allow us to make shortcuts (called "throwers"), adjust volume and brightness, force the closure of a window that does not respond, and so on. These options can be added by clicking the right mouse button and selecting the "Add to Panel" option. (See image No. 3). - A notification area which allows access, for example, to our network connections. (See image No. 4).
A first look at Ubuntu After this introduction, let's get on with it. I'll skip the first step, installa-
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the latest version (image 10).
This menu can be divided into three parts: 1) Applications: these are the programs you commonly use. Here we can access our web browser, our office suite, our media player, and so on. The applications are classified according to function: Accessories, Internet, Office, Sound and Video. It also allows us to "Add or Remove Programs" easily. (See picture No. 7). 2) Places: we could level this with "My Documents" or "Group". This is our "home base", where there are default folders for Pictures, Documents, Audio and Vi-
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deo. In addition, each time you mount a removable device (be it a flash drive, CD / DVD, or external hard drive), an icon will appear in this area indicating its presence. Finally, we also have here our recent documents and system files (it should be noted that we cannot modify the latter unless we log in as administrators). 3) System: here are the system settings. I will mention some of them: • User Options where we can add our personal data and change our password (image 8). • Applications at Home, where we can add programs that will run when loaded on our desktop manager (picture 9). • "Upgrade Manager", which allows us to get the latest versions of our software installed, and update our distribution to
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- To access the latter, you only need to choose which one you want to connect to and enter the password, if any. (See picture No. 5). - Finally, in the upper left corner, our Start Menu. (See image No. 6).
We can also edit some more advanced options... but that requires another tutorial.
Well amigos, that's it for today. I hope this initial glimpse has removed the user's fear for new operating systems. ¡Nos vemos!
Pablo Navarro GNU/Linux Attelier (Chile) pablo.navarroguerra@gmail.com
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tHE HIDDEN SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY
Nuclear Weapons
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein
The Statue of Liberty stands half-buried at the end of a beach. A man gets off his horse and gazes at it. You realize that everything starts to make sense, that his space travel didn' t lead him to an unknown world, but to the future of his own planet. He realizes that everything has been destroyed, that finally his species annihilated itself trough the development of the most destructive technological aberrations of our time: nuclear weapons.
people in that Japanese city died from the bombing, resulting in 140,000 deaths. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were responsible for Japan surrendering to the Allies, ending World War II. Was it necessary for the U.S. to act like that to put an end to the most devastating conflict in history? Can the next war, of equal or greater magnitude, be solved this way, or are the consequences of using nuclear weapons going to be even more destructive?
Both the end of the acclamed Planet of the Apes (1968) and the Einstein quote are prophecies of a catastrophic future that lies dormant, waiting for any irrational action to usher in the eruption of atomic weapons of mass destruction. Although this seems like a far-fetched action of the will of Man, the option is still there. The great monster is waiting to be awakened, and we rely on the choices of a few for the existence of our entire species. Nuclear weapons are a major concern for governments today. This August 6th was the 64th anniversary of the attack on Hiroshima, where one in two
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Despite the progress that still exists in this type of weaponry, several developed countries have advocated a policy of nuclear disarmament as a major objective for peacekeeping in the world. Such is the case in the U.S., the country with the greatest amount of nuclear weapons. President Obama has spoken of the need to abolish them: "America has a moral responsibility to act" to achieve "a world without nuclear weapons. " Hopefully, these words of the U.S. President won' t become another failed proposal. Unfortunately, armed conflicts
THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY that are occurring today make Obama's intentions utopian. The conflict between Palestine and Israel, the War in Iraq, the hardline position of undemocratic governments like North Korea and the existence of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, ETA and the FARC, are some reasons why nuclear disarmament seems like an impossible goal, even illusory, for the immediate future. Also, take into account that the development of technology will inevitably cause the effectiveness and level of destructiveness of nuclear weapons to increase, which becomes a vicious circle. Although the monster is still asleep, it is fed more and more nutrients. Although armed conflicts today form a major barrier to nuclear disarmament, one must take into account that the world has passed unscathed through a time when nuclear war was about to occur: the Cold War. The U.S. and the Soviet Union came to have, together, more than 600 long-range missiles, bomber aircrafts and over fifty land attack missiles. Conflicts such as the ones in Korea, Cuba and Vietnam kept the planet in constant tension, waiting for any of the
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THE HIDDEN SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY
power players to begin using weapons of mass destruction. However, reason triumphed in a certain way and tensions were reduced. Perhaps we can take this example as a hope for disarmament, because we managed get ahead of difficult situations. We should not take our attention away from the serious problem posed by the development of nuclear weapons. However, we risk making a mistake if we squander technology itself. Not only has it made day-to-day living easier, but it has drastically changed the way we relate to people and the vision we have of our society, our planet and the universe. In other words, technology has entered all areas of human life today, so, like it or not, we have to deal with it daily. The problem arises when rapid technological advancement ignores ethics and reason, when "Can I do this?" becomes more important than "Should I do this?", and this is when the dark side of technology takes shape and shows its most powerful element, the most terrifying, the nuclear weapon.
"Take into account that the development of technology will inevitably cause the effectiveness and level of destructiveness of nuclear weapons to increase, which becomes a vicious circle. Although the monster is still asleep, it is fedmore and more nutrients".
Diego Maggi (Venezuela) diegomaggi89@gmail.com
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