2035 Mi.

New Guadalajara Reporter site launches

A project I've been involved in since last October has now launched. The Guadalajara Reporter (where Megan works as a staff reporter) has launched the all new GuadalajaraReporter.com. Most of the content on the site is for paid subscribers only, but all newly registered users get a 1-day pass to the News section. Give it a try!

How about a little background on the project? This project has been 1 1/2 years in the making (although my involvement only began about 6 months ago). To begin with, the Publishers of the paper decided that their former site, which they'd had since 1999 was in need of a complete overhaul. After over a year of trying to work with a developer, they hadn't gotten much further than the initial site visual design.

In October of last year I approached the Publishers and proposed taking over the development of the site. My proposal included moving all of their existing content and users databases to a new system based on the open-source content management system Joomla. I also proposed to set-up a ad server based on the open-source tool OpenX. These two foundational systems would cost the company nothing and even with the inclusion of some commercial extensions for Joomla, the cost for software would be minimal.

Over the last 6 months I've worked very closely with the Publishers and have brought the site in less than half the time as the previous developer worked on the site and at the same budget as the initial developers visual design only.

The site is being hosted by the always wonderful Dreamhost.

Also, since the site just launched last night and since we are with a new host, you may still see the old site for the next day or more.

Someone pry that gun from his cold dead hands

Charlton Heston, crazy old coot, gun nut, finally dies.

Lame Show: Lame Predictions for Macworld

In this episode of the Lame Show Eddie and I try to predict announcements for this weeks Macworld Expo. We also answer some reader mail and have our usual fun with Picks of the Week and our usual complaining with the Lame List.

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Also, I missed listing our two previous episodes, so if you didn't listen to them, here are the show links:
[Episode 23: Christmas Cheers & Jeers]
[Episode 22: Year in Review]

Lame Show: You can now purchase Lameness from our in-flight magazine

Back from a short break, and Eddie has his first Mexican Moment. We discuss the wonders of consumerism at 30,000 feet and move on to important topics like Mac OS X Leopard and Amazon's Kindle. I advertise a few items available for a limited time at eBay and we make our usual Lame List and Picks of the Week choices.

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Photos from Cuba

We recently took a trip to Cuba and have just uploaded a gallery of photos for your viewing pleasure.

Lame Show: Zune not Lame?

A better sounding Lame Show (thanks to my new mic) this week when we talk about a lot of music related topics. We don't add the new version of the Zune to the Lame List and the picks of the week are both about new releases (although we haven't heard one of them yet).

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Updated Photo Galleries

Megan and I have finally added some photos to our Living in Mexico - Year Two gallery. We've begun the process of transitioning our galleries to Picassa Web Albums from Google.

I like the application, but not as much as the custom solution that we had built to host our galleries on my own server. The big issue right now is that we can't find a tool to upload our photos to a self-hosted gallery software. I had used a iPhoto plugin called Photon (no longer being supported or developed) which allowed me to upload photos to our old galleries that were in a Movable Type blog, but unfortunately I can't get Photon to install on my new computer's version of iPhoto. We looked at moving to a dedicated gallery software, but the iPhoto pluggin that would be allow us to upload to that software is also not being developed. The obvious advantage of hosting our own photos is that there is no meaningful space limitations on my webhost (I currently have over 250 GB of available diskspace). Picassa Web Albums only gives you 1GB of space for photos. The other advantage is being able to customize the look and feel of our galleries.

Anybody have a killer self-hosted gallery solution that works well with iPhoto?

Lame Show: Ringtones are Lame

Another audience feedback starts off this show and we have plenty of lame things to talk about and a few lame jokes to tell. For the first time in a long while, we both have musical picks of the week.

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Lame Show: Non-lame Listener Feedback

In our second episode after our summer hiatus we read and discuss our first reader feedback. We also talk about Apple's latest iPod announcements and have a very lame "Lame List" nominee and a couple good "Picks of the Week".

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Lame Show: Let the Lameness continue

Eddie and I finally got back to recording the Lame Show again and this one turned out to be a good one. Because of the significant hiatus we have a lot of not-so-new topics to cover including the iPhone, but we did manage to talk about a few newer topics such as the new iLife. Go checkout episode #17!

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On a completely unrelated topic, I do plan on actually writing on the blog more, so please keep you eye on this space. Updates are forthcoming, I promise.

The Complete Solution

Last week I went to a training provided by my company about Project Management. One of the best parts about the training was the instructor. He told some very amusing anecdotes about projects he had worked on in the past and where they went right and went wrong.

One of the stories he told was about a project a major technology company (but not my employer) did for the Mexican federal government in the late '80s or early '90s. The major technology company was hired to provide a computer system to completely overhaul the federal voting records and make all the records digital. This involved a lot of data entry at the central offices in Mexico City and registration of voters in regional centers. This was an important contract for the major technology company because it represented one of the first developing countries to have digital voting records and a successful completion of the project could mean many future contracts with other governments.

]]> The first problem encountered was with the computers used for data entry in Mexico City. The major technology company started getting reports of high failure rates and very slow progress in migrating the data. The problem was how the employees in this area were hired. The Government was responsible for hiring these employees and rather than hire a temp. agency to hire workers skilled in data entry, the government sent people to the busy subway stops and hired people as they were exiting the subway. This meant that most of the people hired had little or no computer skills and little or no knowledge on how to treat computers. When technicians for the major technology company showed up to perform service at the office they found computers with food (tortas de tamale mostly) and drink spilled all over the computers. Generally the computers were treated badly and the progress was slow because most of the data entry was done by employees who typed using the good ol' hunt 'n' peck method.

The second problem had to do with high failure rates for the servers at some of the regional centers. The government was responsible for leasing the buildings for these regional centers, but had failed to check the condition of the roofs at many of these centers. When the rainy season started many of the servers at these centers started to get dripped on by leaks in the roofs. Workers at theses centers either didn't understand or didn't care that this was bad for the computers.

By this point news of the problems with the elections system started making its way into the press. Most of the articles didn't talk about the cause of the problems, but simply blamed the major technology company for "delays" in the deployment of the system. Eventually news of the problems made its way to the executive management of the company. Finally, the CEO of the company made a decision. No matter what the cost, even if it meant a loss on this project, the major technology company would fix the problems and complete the project on schedule. This meant hiring a temp. agency to hire qualified replacement workers for the data entry. This meant repairing and sealing the roofs at the regional center. This meant a lot of many spent by the technology company on non-technology solutions. The project did get completed, but at a significant loss to the company.

What did this teach us about Project Management? Well, for one, make sure that the contract spells out the responsibility of both parties and make sure both parties understand these responsibilities.

Nortec Show

Last night Megan and I went to downtown and saw the Nortec Collective in concert. This was a free show that was part of the 10th annual Festival Cultural de Mayo.
The Nortec Collective is a art and music group based in Tijuana and are best known for an album they released 2000 called "The Tijuana Sessions". The artists in the collective sample instrumental parts from old norte�o recordings and combine them with electronic and dance music. This makes for great music and an entertaining album, but I was worried that it wouldn't make for a very good live show.
Happily, the band blew my expectations out of the water. It really helped that they invited Banda Agua Caliente, an excellent typical norte�o band, to play along with them. This meant that instead of using nore�o samples, they had a live band to play these parts. The band knew the songs well and enhanced the electronic music perfectly. I particularly liked the version of "Dandy del Sur" and "Don Loope" that were played.
Since Nortec is an art and music collective they had some really great graphic design showing behind the band during the songs. The art perfectly complimented the songs and enhanced the entire concert.
After a very large set with both the banda and the electronic musicians, there was a shorter set featuring just the Nortec Collective and some of their more club music songs. After this the banda did their own set. We left just before midnight, but not before hearing a truly amazing cover of Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again". It was really great to hear a new wave song covered by a banda group with it's big brass band sound and supported by the electronic musicians of Nortec.
If you would like to hear some of the Nortec Collectives songs, download some o f the following mp3s:
Colorado - Fussible
Dandy del Sur - Hiperboreal

Our First Bullfight

Last weekend Megan and I went to what is billed as the largest festival in Mexico, the Feria de San Marcos in Aguascalientes. Aguascalientes is the capital of the state of the same name and is northeast of Jalisco (where Guadalajara is located). The fair runs for a month in April and May every year. The fair features many concerts, exhibits, carnival rides, lots of partying and two of the more cruel animal related sports around.
Cockfighting, while normally illegal in Mexico, is allowed at the Feria de San Marcos because of a tradition of cockfighting at past festivals. We didn't get to go to a cockfight while we were in Aguascalientes since they had finished a few days earlier.
We did however go to our first ever bullfight on Saturday evening. Megan and I both had mixed feelings about going to a bullfight. It is an inherently violent and cruel death for the bull, but it is also supposed to be one of the most beautiful and interesting cultural activities in Latin America.
[More after the jump and more photos to come later in the week]

]]> We went to the arena about 6pm and took our seats in the top of the shady side of the arena. We were just in time for the first of 6 bulls. There were 3 matadors, so each were to fight 2 bulls each. Here is how each fight goes (more or less).
As the bull enters the arena there is the main matador and three assistants (banderilleros) test the bull to make sure it is up for a fight. They provoke the bull into charging them and then deftly dodge out of the way. After they are satisfied that the bull means to trample them and the crowd is satisfied they will get a good show, they move on to the next phase. If they or the crowd aren't happy with the bull, then the bull gets sent out of the arena to await another fight. This happened once during the fight we watched and subsequently a "reserve" bull was brought out to fight.
The next phase begins with the entry two horse-mounted picadores. The picadores each have a long spear and their horses are very well padded and protected. The banderilleros draw the bull towards one of the picadores at the outside of the ring. The picador then stabs the bull in the back with the spear. It seems like the picadores are not looked upon very favorably by the crowd. The crowd views them as a necessary evil, but if the picador is to enthusiastic about doing his job the crowd starts to boo and yell at him. This was nearly my least favorite part of the fight. It seems very cruel and weakens the bull to a very large degree. In a few of the fights we saw the bull was so hurt by the picador that it could barely fight or standup.
In the next phase the banderilleros or the matador try to stab the bull with 3 sets of 2 barbed sticks. This further weakens the bull and prepares it for the ultimate phase.
In the last phase, the matador faces the bull by himself. The matador again dodges the bull over and over. The bull is generally bleed very badly by this point and seems to understand that this is a fight for its life. After a lot of dodging and taunting the matador will get a sword from ring side. He faces off against the bull and while the bull charges he will try to stab the bull behind the head in spine. If successful, the bull will drop to the ground and die, but this is very rare, in the 8 fights we saw (there were two extra fights that night) only one of the matadors managed to do this. If they are unsuccessful, then the bull will walk around with a sword stuck in its back and the matador will try once or twice more. If the bull collapses, but does not die, then the fight is over and a assistant will stab the bull in the back with a long knife to insure it is dead. The bulls body is then dragged out of the arena by a team of bulls.
I left the arena after 8 bullfights with similarly mixed feeling about the sport. It is a beautiful event to watch, with the matadors and banderilleros more like very talented dancers than anything. The crowd participation is very interesting and important aspect of the entire event. At the same time, the killing of the bull was unnecessarily cruel and violent. Most of the fight seems to involve taunting the bull into charging the fighters, but I don't believe this is really the natural inclination of the bull. In the end, both Megan and I decided we would like to go to another bullfight here in Guadalajara, but I still think it will be difficult to watch.

Belize Trip

For the week after Easter Megan and I took a week off work and traveled to Belize. We've posted photos, but due to circumstances (i.e. not having a Mac) we couldn't put them up in our Hawk's Eye photo gallery. We used Google's Picasa and their Picasa Web Gallery service. Also, you can see our photos in Google Earth by downloading this file.

The trip was very interesting and Belize is unlike any country I've ever been to. Owing to its status as a former British colony and the subsequent influx of different cultures, this is one of the most diverse places I have ever been. There are Africans, Mayans mestizos, Chinese, East Indians and a fairly large Mennonite population. Most Belizans speak 2-3 languages (English, Creole, and Spanish being the most common) and some speak 5 or more (possibly a Mayan dialect or Gar�nagu). All this in a country with only about 250,000 people.

]]> We flew into Chetumal in southern Mexico on the Saturday before Easter and found the town completely full with holiday travelers. We couldn't find a hotel, but we heard that there were hotel-casinos over the Mexico-Belize border, so we caught a bus over the border hoping they would have a room available. We figured that if they didn't, at least the casino was open 24 hrs. a day, so we could just stay awake in the casino. Unfortunately, there was no room at the hotel, so we just decided to stay up all night in the casino.

Early the next morning (Easter Sunday) we caught a bus headed for San Ignacio in the Cayo district of western Belize. San Ignacio is very close to the Guatemala border and is located in a lush jungle setting. On Monday we went on a tour of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. We saw an amazing cave and swam in some really refreshing river pools. On Tuesday morning, we woke up very early to catch a bus further west to the small village of San Jose Succotz. We crossed a hand-cranked ferry and walked up to the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. These ruins are very nice, but not huge. We were the first people up to the ruins and got to roam the entire grounds by ourselves. After walking back to San Jose Succotz we caught a bus to the southern coastal town of Dangriga.

We didn't stay long in Dangriga and caught the first boat to Tobacco Caye on the edge of 2nd largest barrier reef in the world. The entire island is only 5km square and has only a couple small lodges, we stayed at the Paradise Inn. The Paradise Inn consists of 4 small cabins with porches out over the water. The island is beautiful. Our pictures don't really do it justice. For the next four days (through Friday) our daily activities pretty much consisted of snorkeling, eating, reading in a hammock, snorkeling, eating, reading in a hammock and more snorkeling. It was an incredibly relaxing place and just what we needed.

On Friday we caught the morning ferry back to Dangriga and then caught a bus to Orange Walk in northern Belize. Orange Walk wasn't my favorite city, but we found a good hotel and booked a tour of the Mayan Lamanai ruins for the next day. On Saturday we woke up and caught a taxi to the river docks were the tours to Lamanai leave. The boat ride up the New River to Lamanai was a great way to see the bird life of Belize. We saw all 5 species of herons that reside in Belize as well as a many other birds. We even caught a glimpse of a crocidile. The Lamanai ruins are much larger than Xunantunich. We enjoyed a very thorough tour of the site and I climbed the highest temple on the site. It is 150 meters tall and at over 300 meters above sea level it is the highest spot in northern Belize.

After our tour of Lamanai and the New River we caught a bus up to Chetumal, Mexico. We stayed there Saturday night and then caught a flight back on Sunday morning.

Lame Show: Lame Shutdown

This week on the Lame Show Eddie and I talked about Apple TV, YouTube v. Viacom, Shutdownday.org, creepy popcorn commercials and more.

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