Lucas Rocha: Uncluttering
May 8, 2010 - No comments yet
Keukenhof
Since the end of last year, I started a gradual process of uncluttering my online life in order to waste less time on distractions and get more focused on the stuff that I really care about at the moment. Here’s what (and how) I managed to do so far in this regard.
No e-mail auto-archiving anymore. When you add filters to auto-archive your e-mails into folders, you’re basically creating a situation where it’s ok to receive email you often don’t care about. I decided to auto-tag e-mail but not to auto-archive them anymore. This way I can have a clear sense of the amount of the e-mail I’m getting everyday – as they don’t auto-hide somewhere – and what mailing lists are just a waste of time.
Unsubscribed from most of mailing lists. It’s impressive how much time you waste on just skimming through a massive number of mailing list e-mails, just to feel that you’re keeping track of what’s going on. I decided to only keep subscription on mailing lists that I really care about. The no-auto-archiving approach helped a lot in recognizing the unwanted e-mails. Result: unsubscribed from 30+ mailing lists.
Unsubscribed from most of social web groups. Especially the Facebook ones. I rarely use them anyway. So, no need to keep any participation. Result: unsubscribed from 15+ groups.
Not using feed reader anymore. Ok, this one may sound a bit silly. For some reason, feed readers give me the feeling that there’s always unread stuff to be seen – and end up having a look at it too often. Also, it brings me this sort of illusion that you can read much more content than I actually can. So, I decided to simply bookmark my favourite websites (around 30) and access them whenever I feel like it. In practice, I visit only 8-10 of those everyday. The other 20 are visited at random times.
Not following too many microbloggers. I try to follow a maximum of 100-ish people on Twitter and Identi.ca. Following more than that would make me feel like I’m always missing something and checking out what’s new too often. Nowadays, I read the new entries every time I post something which is healthy frequency.
Avoiding redundant content. There’s a lot of redundant content out there. Very often the same news is published in different forms in several websites. In that case, I just chose the websites which in my opinion have higher content quality. Furthermore, sometimes just following someone on Twitter or Identi.ca is enough to get access to all new stuff coming from them as they microblog about their new blog posts, photos, videos, etc, anyway. In that case, there’s no need to subscribe to their blog feed and follow them on Twitter, for example.
There’s so much content you can get from the net nowadays that it’s quite easy to fall in the trap of thinking that you are able to consume it all. But that’s obviously an silly thought. I decided to focus on what I find relevant now and ignoring the rest as much as I can. And I’m saving some precious time for other things I care about. I may ended up deciding to expand the amount of content to read everyday but I’ll definitely do it in a more disciplined way from now on.
Fábio Nogueira: É hora de ajudar!
May 8, 2010 - No comments yet
Sim… é chegada a hora!
Semanalmente recebo diversos pedidos de CDs do Ubuntu, principalmente quando se aproxima dos lançamentos das novas versões do Ubuntu. Para resolver e principalmente agilizar os pedidos que feitos através do http://shipit.ubuntu.com podem demorar até dois meses para chegar, criamos uma wiki chamada CDs No Brasil, onde fica mais fácil de encontrar na sua cidade, voluntários na doação de cds de instalação na versão e arquitetura desejada.
Precisamos de mais doadores! Pessoas que possam passar esta ideia adiante. No início tínhamos mais de 60 pessoas envolvidas, Hoje apenas 4 gatos pingados! É nesse ponto que este post quer chegar.
Queimar um CD não custa nada… no máximo pedir o reembolso da mídia. Então está mais do que na hora de ajudar o próximo… principalmente o mais próximo, mesmo porque fica dispendioso ficar enviando CDs para outros Estados, indo a agências dos CORREIOS, etc…
Fica aqui então o meu pedido para contar com novos colaboradores na ajuda daqueles desprovidos de banda larga, etc…
Para conhecer e ajudar nessa iniciativa, acesse: http://wiki.ubuntu-br.org/CDsNoBrasil. No mais, estou à disposição!
Lucas Rocha: Note to Planet readers
May 7, 2010 - No comments yet
Maricá
I decided to use a tag-specific feed in the two Planets aggregating my blog posts: Planet GNOME and Planeta GNOME Brasil. I’m planning to post more often about some “off-topic” topics (music, food, personal stuff, drawings, etc) and I don’t want to cause too much distraction to Planet readers.
That doesn’t mean I’ll only aggregate GNOME-related posts in those Planets from now on. It’s just that I want to explicitly select what goes in and what doesn’t.
So, if you’re a Planet reader and for some crazy reason you feel like you don’t want to miss any of my blog posts, subscribe directly to my feed or follow me on Identi.ca or Twitter.
Jonh Wendell: FLISOL e ENSOL
May 5, 2010 - No comments yetOi gente!
Eu esqueci de falar sobre o FLISOL que aconteceu semana passada. O GNOME Brasil esteve representado em 4 cidades, incluindo Maceió! Estive lá e, claro, falei sobre o GNOME, o que ele é (sim, muita gente não “conhece” GNOME, só conhece Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux, OpenOffice, etc), como ele é organizado e como é bom fazer parte deste projeto!
The talk
Two guys winning a GNOME t-shirt
Amanhã vou viajar para João Pessoa, para participar do ENSOL. Nós do GNOME Brasil teremos três palestras e também teremos um estande/quiosque, onde poderemos nos encontrar e nos divertir! O evento acaba no domingo, então, na próxima semana blogarei sobre ele.
Inté!
Jonh Wendell: Placa de vídeo SiS e o tocador de vídeo totem
May 4, 2010 - No comments yetOi gente. Continuando minha saga com a placa de vídeo SiS:
Não consigo reproduzir nenhum vídeo (divx, dvd) com o totem. A solução?
Instale o VLC media player.
Ele não é tão integrado ao GNOME e não é tão simples de usar como o totem, e ainda mostra algumas falhas no vídeo sendo reproduzido, mas o que importa é que ele funciona com os drivers SiS. Isso siginifica que posso continuar acompanhando LOST!
A propósito, isso seria uma falha no gstreamer?
Jonh Wendell: Docky (3D) e placas SiS
May 3, 2010 - No comments yetOi gente!
Todos sabemos que o suporte às placas de vídeos SiS no Linux é muito fraco né? Recentemente meu laptop antigo quebrou e minha empresa me deu um novo, mas muito, muito ruim, com uma placa SiS[671/771]. Depois de pesquisar um pouco no Google, consegui instalar um driver que pelo menos me dá a resolução 1280×800. Porém o 3D (Compiz) não funciona.
Sem um gerenciador de janelas com composite, eu não consigo executar o Docky do GNOME-Do. Qual a solução?
Habilite o composite no Metacity: Abra o Editor de Configurações (Alt-F2 -> gconf-editor), vá para a chave /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager e ative-a, de forma que ela fique ticada.
Voilá! Você tem um desktop com composite funcionando, e pode agora executar o Docky!
Infelizmente o gnome-shell não funciona, e, consequentemente, nada de GNOME 3 pra mim :’(
Se você sabe de algum macete que faça o gnome-shell funcionar nestas placas cocô da SiS, compartilhe já!
Fábio Nogueira: Ubuntu bem mastigado!
April 30, 2010 - No comments yet
Quero neste post, parabenizar o Carlos Eduardo do Val (e todos os envolvidos) pela grande iniciativa de criar o livro Ubuntu – Guia do Iniciante, que não serve apenas para apresentar o Ubuntu aos novatos, como o Linux em si, desta forma disserminando o uso de Software Livre.
O livro está disponível para download gratuito, para usar, abusar e principalmente divulgar, para assim contribuir com toda essa iniciativa!
Lucas Rocha: How I enjoy music
April 30, 2010 - One comment
Abstract #2
Yes, I’m an avid music fan. I’ve learnt to love music since I was a little kid seeing my Dad playing Brazilian music (Forró, Chorinho, Samba, Bossa, Jovem Guarda, and others) every week in a bar/restaurant in our neighbourhood in Salvador. Since then, I’ve been the singer of a garage rock band called Precários (during my teenage years), percussionist and drummer in a few bands until 2006, and listened to a quite diverse range of genres. Here are some quick facts about my music habits which roughly describe how I enjoy music nowadays.
I listen to Jazz most of the time. Neo-soul, Acid Jazz, and Brazilian music comes next in my daily playlist – intertwined with the new stuff I end up finding on the way. I’m not really a mainstream guy and usually like more niche stuff. But I can enjoy some mainstream things too. A side note: it’s really nice to not be in the mainstream wagon because your favourite albums tend to be much cheaper (especially the old jazz stuff).
I rarely buy CDs. I only do it in specific cases. i.e. when I find a nice record shop (see below). I buy albums in digital format (MP3) most of the time.
I prefer to listen to the whole album first. I don’t like to buy specific tracks only. In my opinion, an album is a cohesive piece that is better enjoyed as whole. It tells a lot about the musical phase of the artists and their influences. Listening to a track alone is like hearing only one part of a longer story. There are exceptions of course.
I’m ok to pay for music. May sound silly to say that but this is not necessarily true for a lot of people these days :-P So, yes, if the price is not abusive and it’s music I’m interested in, I’m ok to pay for it.
I focus on quality, not quantity. This is actually one of the reasons I pay for the albums I really care about. It’s a way to slow down a bit and take my time to enjoy the stuff I have in more depth. I see people downloading a huge amount of albums from internet (e.g. the whole discography of artist A and B) just for the sake “having” them. They rarely listen to everything they download. After an album passes my initial gut test (i.e. sounds interesting, causes some reaction, etc), I listen to it several times to dissect it into the smallest details. I have a lot of fun doing it! For instance, this is what I did with my favourite version of So What and other tunes.
I discover new stuff through the web. Duh, who doesn’t? I’ve used mp3 stores (7digital, Amazon, Ubuntu Music Store, and others), subscription-based stores (eMusic), and streaming services (Last.fm and Spotify Premium). To find new stuff to listen to, I usually follow a process of researching, sampling, and acquisition. Nowadays I use a combination of related artists listings from Last.fm, Wikipedia articles, and reviews from specialised websites (such as AllAboutJazz) for the research part; and Spotify for continuous sampling. If I decide that I really like the album or artist, I eventually buy the MP3 albums from Amazon. Nothing new here I guess.
I love independent record shops. I haven’t found my favourite/official one in London yet. Suggestions are welcome. Back in my Finnish days, I found a really nice record shop in Helsinki, where I would go every other week. Local music shops are really nice to meet other music fans, get good suggestions for your next album, etc.
Now, let me get back to this cool Myron Walden album I just found out about.
Fábio Nogueira: Finalmente… as fotos do FLISOL Salvador 2010!
April 30, 2010 - No comments yet
O FLISOL Salvador 2010 foi produtivo! A público esteve presente para contemplar as palestras do meus amigos Alexandro ‘Alexos’ Silva, Antônio Terceiro, Aurélio ‘Aurium’ Heckert, Cristiano Furtado, Hugo ‘Milhouse’ Dória, Rafael ‘Gomex’ Gomes, entre outros…
Demorou, mas finalmente arranjei um tempo na agenda para postar as fotos! 
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Esperamos agora por 2011! Abraços…
Atualização: Foram adicionadas mais fotos do evento, registradas por Otávio Santana. Para conferir os cliques do meu amigo Alexandro ‘Penguim’ Silva, basta acessar o seguinte link!
Lucas Rocha: On BS-free business
April 29, 2010 - No comments yet
Abstract #3
I just read two books covering indirectly related topics which complement each other. Those books together make a strong point about how businesses and our jobs should be. The first book is Dan Pink’s Drive – which led me to write a bit about the intrinsic motivations and the future of F/OSS communities by the way. The second is Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.
Drive is spot-on in clarifying the big mismatch between what science knows and what business does with regards to motivation. Pink’s TED talk summarizes very well the point of his book. It’s impressive, and even scary, how so many businesses just don’t get that when you settle on a culture of if-then rewards, treat your employees like irresponsible children, micromanage people all the time, you’ll quickly kill their motivation. That’s what research has shown. We all want to do meaningful stuff, things that allow us to get increasingly better on what we do. When people who are passionate about their work are hired, companies should just let them do their thing without many distractions. It works, trust me.
Rework is a fucking awesome book. The authors are two guys from 37signals, the company that created the famous Ruby on Rails and other nice web apps. This book is call for more down to earth, hands-on, simple, small, smart, flexible, efficient, realistic businesses. The format couldn’t be different: it’s a set of short and straight-to-the-point essays divided into sections like Progress, Hiring, Promotion, Productivity, Evolution, etc. You’ll see things like “Meetings are toxic”, “Underdo your competition”, “Resumés are ridiculous”, “Build half a product, not a half-assed product”, “Press releases are spam”, “Fire the workaholics”, and many other awesome ideas in this book. It was great to see many of the things I have always thought about and expected from companies summarized in a book! Thankfully, this is mostly what I’ve been experiencing at litl so far.
Drive diagnoses the problem of motivation and Rework brings powerful ideas on how to actually do BS-free, hands-on, smart, and agile business.