I hate you, airline industry

I hate flying. I hate airplanes. I hate airlines. I hate crews. I hate ground handling teams. I hate everything that has to do with that shit. Deeply. Disturbingly. Profoundly.

I hate the way you airlines cram hundreds of people into the smallest of spaces. Do you really think my femur fits the distance between your seats? Do you really think I enjoy being pushed sideways for hours by my seat neighbor because the armrest is too narrow for the both of us? Do you really think I can eat my meal when the seat in front of me is in the horizontal position? Do you really think I can’t avoid numb legs and feet during long flights? Do you really think I can go to the toilets without waking up all the people in the row in front of me or my neighbors?

I hate how long boarding and getting out of the damn plane takes. Haven’t you noticed that airplanes usually have more than one door? Then why the fuck are all 380 passengers of a 747 getting into the plane though the same, unique, small door? Can’t you design airports that take that into account? Can’t you, jetty makers, airport designers, add an extension to boarding gates that goes above the wing or below the tarmac so that we can all get in and out through several doors at once? Continue reading

Tweeting without Twitter

During my flight to WWDC this year I could not really sleep, and the 12 hour flight was the source of memorable tweets that will never make it to Twitter. Because of timing and context, and also because of the inexcusable lack of wifi network in some major airlines.

Anyway.

I used Pages during the flight to keep track of all those insomniac, bilingual tweets, while the plane was a going through the Atlantic and Canada towards San Francisco. Some are about the flight itself, others about the Argentine film “El Secreto de sus Ojos”, and finally some about the Football World Cup. Project yourself in the situation, and enjoy the rants. I certainly did :) Continue reading

suecia

en suecia, al menos en göteborg, hay luces en cada ventana.

dicho asi, parece una tremenda boludez, pero es asi: mirando las fachadas de cualquier edificio, cada ventana tiene un velador entre cada cortina. siempre. de esos veladores de mesa de luz, con su pantalla color crema, dando una luz acaramelada, melosa, calida, que contrasta con el frio exterior. en medio de la ventana, un velador, en cada ventana de cada edificio de cada avenida.

es una ciudad donde las calles estan cubiertas de piedritas.

dicho asi, parece otra tremenda boludez, pero ayuda a que la gente camine sin matarse entre los manchones de nieve, algunos a medio derretir y otros transformados en montañas de hielo y polvo. hay piedritas sueltas, que ayudan a que el zapato agarre mejor la calzada, a medio camino entre arena y canto rodado, en cada tramo de cada vereda de cada avenida.

es un pais raro.

los restoranes estan repletos a las 15 como en españa, pero vacios a las 19 como ni siquiera en suiza. la gente desayuna panceta con huevo y porotos con tomate, pero no hay gordos en las calles; es mas, son todos flacos de un metro noventa promedio. son tan rubios que a los albinos les dicen morochos. en los tranvias, las maquinas que te venden el boleto tienen un boton que dice “english” pero que igual te da las instrucciones en sueco. la gente es seca pero cordial, parece que te van a mandar a la mierda en cualquier momento; y cuando te ven con un mapa se paran y te preguntan si necesitas ayuda, con una gentileza que desmorona. pronuncian las “a” como “o”, y la “y” suena como una “u” francesa. y si es una “å” con redondelito es diferente de si es una “ä” con dieresis. hay locales de venta de “gudis” por todos lados, vendiendo golosinas a granel; agarrate una bolsa en la entrada y paga a la salida, al peso.

deci que no manejan por la izquierda, como los ingleses, eso ya seria mucho.

Ask Me Anything

Exactly what you have read: if you have any question for me, don’t hesitate and post it in formspring.me/akosma. I’ll be glad to answer it for you! Of course, iPhone-related questions are top priority. But progressive rock questions are, too. And of course, anything related to Argentina and Switzerland. And software in general. Well, that makes for a lot of subjects; start firing!

On the Importance of Yerba Mate in the Software Development Process

mateThis paper will highlight the results of an extensive research conducted since the mid 90′s, on the effects of the consumption of beverages based in the plant known as Ilex paraguariensis, in the framework of software development process activities in South America and some small parts of Europe.

This paper will provide an introduction to the herb commonly referred to as “Yerba Mate”, and will later delve into the advantages and disadvantages of such practice, in the context of the creation of software products.

Introduction

Yerba Mate is defined by Wikipedia as follows:

Yerba mate or yerba-mate (Br.) (Spanish: yerba mate, Portuguese: erva-mate), Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly (family Aquifoliaceae) native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, eastern Paraguay and southern Brazil. It was first scientifically classified by Swiss botanist Moses Bertoni, who settled in Paraguay in 1895.

Continue reading

Wonderful uses of the Phone

maravillloso

(Image caption: “A passenger in a plane of Northwest Orient Airlines makes a phone call relayed by radio”) Wonderful uses of the Phone by Richard F. Dempewolff Reaching over a shelf in her kitchen, a housewife pushes a button in a modern device similar to a transistor radio. “One, one, five, seven, five, eight, zero,” says the woman in front of the device microphone. A light turns on in the five centimeter screen in front of the device and the image of a man appears. “Joe,”, says the housewife, “do me a favor: please bring chocolate ice cream when you leave from work.” The man in the screen smiles and through a small speaker a manly voice says: “sure, I’ll be there in half an hour.”

(Mecánica Popular – latin-american version of Popular Mechanics, october 1958 – courtesy of hernún)