The FIBer talks

Nos trasladamos a un Wordpress!

2009-05-17T16:08:00.005+02:00

Sí señores, el blog este se traslada a la siguiente dirección: http://djmartinez.co.cc

He decidido instalar un wordpress en un servidor independiente ya que wordpress me parece muchísimo mejor y más personalizable. La nueva página, con estilo Windows Vista, está compuesta por una barra como si de un sistema operativo se tratase, con opciones para poder personalizar el aspecto de la página y un buscador y todo.

Espero que os mole la nueva pag :D

Reunión 09/03

2009-03-09T19:23:00.002+01:00

Adopción (finalmente) de un test-driven development en el desarrollo del Web Service de Moodle. Primero se hacen los unit tests, y luego se desarrolla. Gracias a esta metodologia, los requisitos del sistema y las funcionalidades que debe tener se definen con bastante seguridad desde el principio.
Me traspasan del desarrollo de módulos al desarrollo más activo, a Core.
Moodle ha decidido que el protocolo de REST que tienen ellos implementado es ineficaz ante ciertos problemas, y se intentará readoptar el protocolo que David y Ferran implementaron hace un año. Tengo que ver cómo podemos realizar esta readaptación y qué cambios puede conllevar a la arquitectura de descripción por PHPDOC. Este cambio significará mejoras como la posibilidad de poder utilizar funciones múltiples.
Debido al cambio anterior, hay que tener cuidado. Las arrays de funciones múltiples no deberían ser asociativas (no deben tener una clave por cada ID de usuario, por ejemplo.
Originalmente, REST funcionaba sólo por POST. La idea es hacer algo más descriptivas las peticiones, y que también se permita el uso de PUT y DELETE en las peticiones HTTP. Hay que modificar el optional_param y required_param para que permitan esto.

También me han sido asignados varias tareas en la wiki:

Petr Skodä ha cambiado el diseño de la base de datos de la wiki. Esto afecta directamente a la migración, y hay que adaptarla a los nuevos cambios para que vuelva a funcionar correctamente.
Efeméride: creando un fichero settings.php dentro de cualquier módulo creas una nueva configuración para ese módulo.

Reunión 03/03

2009-03-03T15:27:00.001+01:00

Montado servidor git donde subir los archivos desarrollados para el Webservice del foro.

Testing de los protocolos WS contra el foro - 02/03

2009-03-02T14:05:00.003+01:00

Finalizado testing de permisos del foro y de sus funcionalidades. Todo correcto.
Testing del protocolo REST contra el foro: Éxito. Testing protocolo SOAP y XMLRPC: Fracaso debido a que la capa implementada de estos protocolos por parte de la gente de Moodle no funciona correctamente en carpetas más profundas (en /user funciona, pero en /mod/forum no, por ejemplo).

Cambios en la arquitectura del Web Service - 26/02

2009-02-27T13:27:00.005+01:00

Cambios en la arquitectura

Sustitución de la array descriptions para describir los parámetros de entrada/salida del WebService, anteriormente definida en la capa external, por PHPDOC, facilitando así tanto la construcción de las descripciones como la documentación de las funciones de cara al desarrollador final.

Python y PHPUnit Testing - 17/02

2009-02-13T22:06:00.008+01:00

Creación de una aplicación en python para poder probar el Webservice en REST.
Creación de varios Unit Tests para probar el webservice de forma ágil - test de permisos y de funcionalidad de las operaciones implementadas para el foro de Moodle.

Interoperabilidad en Moodle 2.0 (15/01 - 27/01)

2009-01-31T21:05:00.016+01:00

Una vez terminado mi trabajo para la wiki 2.0 (estuve trabajando en la parte de migración que consistía en migrar las bases de datos de otras wikis como Ewiki o la antigua Nwiki hacia la nueva wiki), ahora he sido redirigido a la última parte del proyecto de final de carrera: Ayudar en el desarrollo de la capa de Interoperabilidad para Moodle 2.0 (más conocido como Web Services).

Cada vez más usuarios y organizaciones utilizan Moodle, y estos cada vez utilizan otras plataformas de acceso, ya sea un móvil, cómo una wii, un iPhone... Esta capa garantizará independencia tecnológica que permitirá a estos dispositivos "hablar" con Moodle, "interoperar". Antes Moodle era una aplicación monolítica y todo funcionaba desde la propia aplicación Moodle.

Esto puede derivar en un amplio abanico de posibilidades: Los desarrolladores podrán crear clientes que puedan interactuar con Moodle.

Ejemplo:

Moodle está hecho en PHP, y el Web Service estará implementado de la misma forma. Y tenemos a la FIB, una facultad que tiene Moodle instalado para sus estudiantes, y (por decir algo) una aplicación de automatrícula hecha en Python, y desearía que, a la vez que se matriculan los estudiantes, se cree un usuario automáticamente, sin necesitar que haya un becario que haga el trabajo de ir creando a los estudiantes en el Moodle uno a uno.
De forma "directa", no puedes hacer que una aplicación escrita en Python se comunique con otra aplicación escrita en PHP. Sin webservices, nuestro objetivo es difícil de conseguir.
Con Web Services podemos conseguirlo. Imaginemos que Moodle dispone de un servicio que es "crear usuario". La aplicación en Python utilizaría ese servicio (transmitiéndole los datos necesarios), y Moodle le contestaría a la aplicación diciéndole si ha habido éxito en la inserción o no, y posibles errores.

Y todo eso, cómo se hace?

Hay varios tipos de protocolos que permiten esto: REST, SOAP, OKI, XML-RPC... De momento, sólamente hay implementado parcialmente REST y SOAP. Estos són los encargados de comunicarse con los clientes. Los clientes mandan la petición en un formato estándar (ya sea en una petición HTTP como en REST, o una petición HTTP + un XML como en SOAP), y el Web Service contesta con un XML con los resultados.

Aquí pongo un esquema de lo que sería la comunicación:

Una vez realizada esta pequeña introducción a los Web Services, pasemos otra vez a Moodle y el trabajo que hay que desarrollar.

En esta capa de Interoperabilidad habrá protocolos REST, SOAP, OKI... cada uno de estos componentes invocará las operaciones de dominio y devolverá resultados. Las operaciones de dominio, por supuesto, serán comunes (se hace una implementación única para todos los protocolos). Estas operaciones que se ponen a disposición del Web Service se conoce como API (application programming interface, un conjunto de operaciones o rutinas que sirven para soportar el desarrollo de aplicaciones).

En este dibujo mostramos cuál será la estructura interna de los WebServices:

Estará compuesto por tres capas:
- la Externa, la Media y la Core. En la externa (ubicada en la carpeta /webservices) se encontrarán los protocolos (REST en /webservices/rest, SOAP en /webservices/soap,...). Esta capa tiene por objetivo analizar la petición del cliente, y llamar la función correspondiente del external.php
- La capa media está compuesta por varios fichero external.php, un fichero external.php por cada parte de la aplicación (/admin/external.php, /user/external.php, /mod/forum/external.php,...). Estos ficheros se encargan de tratar los parámetros que le llegan de la capa externa y pasarselos a la capa de core.
- La capa core está compuesta por ficheros api.php, un fichero por cada parte de la aplicación, como en el caso del external.php. Estos ficheros son lo que sería la antigua lib.php, el fichero donde se implementan las funciones para acceder a base de datos o ejecutar diferentes acciones.

Cómo implementaremos esto?

El siguiente esquema explica cual será el funcionamiento básico de una petición:

El protocolo no guarda estado. Esto significa que en cada petición el cliente deberá autentificarse enviando su usuario y su password. Una vez autentificado, el protocolo devolverá un "token", que autentificará al cliente durante toda la petición.
El cliente llama una función concreta del Web Service, enviando el nombre del módulo, función a llamar y parámetros, incluído el token.
El protocolo utiliza el token para verificar que la sesión es válida y activa.
El protocolo llama a la función externa correspondiente, ubicado en el external.php del módulo correspondiente.
La función en external.php comprueba que el usuario realmente está autorizado a realizar dicha acción.
La función externa llama a la correspondiente función en core.
Y el resultado de la función es devuelto al externo, de externo al protocolo, y del protocolo al cliente./li>

Aquí tenemos el diagrama de secuencia que correspondría al ciclo de una petición (almenos en REST, y supongo que será un esquema compartido por todos los protocolos):

La solución de la implementación para el caso de la capa media y de core (la implementación de la capa de protocolo porque depende del protocolo) es la siguiente:

external.php:
- Se usa una convención de nombres para el nombre de las clases: las clases tendrán la terminación "_external", y delante llevarán el nombre del módulo en cuestión. Si se trata de una clase de core (como admin o user) el nombre de la clase sería admin_external o user_external respectivamente, y si es un módulo (como el foro) entonces seria mod_forum_external. Básicamente el nombre depende del Path: por ejemplo, como el external.php del foro se encuentra en /mod/forum, la clase debe llamarse mod_forum_external. Si cambiáramos el nombre de la carpeta, habría que adaptar el nombre de la clase.
  
  Todo esto es por temas de implementación interna. Recordemos que habíamos dicho anteriormente que la capa de protocolo es la que se encarga de localizar y delegar la petición al external.php correspondiente. Pues la localización del módulo se realiza mediante esta convención de nombres.
- En la constructora de la clase se definen las operaciones que se deben llamar en una array "descriptions". Por cada operación se definen cuales son los parámetros de entra y de retorno.
- Las operaciones que se definen en la clase serán todas estáticas, y comprobarán la autorización del usuario, adaptarán los parámetros y llamarán a la función correspondiente de core.
api.php:
- Todas las funciones serán estaticas.
- El nombre de la clase seguirá la misma convención de nombres que en el caso de la external, pero finalizado en "_api".

En esta página podréis ver código de ejemplo del protocolo REST y del external.php: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Web_services

Enlaces relacionados:

HOWTO: Be a good FPS player

2008-12-11T13:22:00.010+01:00

Being the fucking God in any First-Person Shooter isn't an easy task; of course, it requires skill, practice and motivation to carry on playing and improve yourself every day.

Nevertheless, some playing strategy and some options can help you to achieve this task and be a good player, wining more or being more frequently the best player on the field. Let's see some strategy made by Davigetto. I'm taking as example AssaultCube, a free FPS -> Recommended!!!!

Weapons: Any FPS which deserves some acceptance should have several kind of weapons, among them:

A submachine gun with fast fire rate for those who don't aim very well at first. Good for finishing off those badly damaged enemies or spreading around. The counterpart is that every bullet does a low amount of damage (at fast rate, of course) and while you are firing on your target, you are showing yourself, exposed to be fired by the enemy. Shotguns are good avoiding this last disadvantatge (you can shot and hide), but aim is needed.
A sniper rifle for long distance and players who love playing FPS games with strategy (hide, shot&run, support the team...), have a good accuracy and can kill an enemy in only 1 shot. They are good defending short-ranged team members from other snipers too, or shooting targets which are far away.
Shotgun: shotguns are simply fantastic and massive. The have a medium fire rate, but in every shot they usually spread up to ten or more bullets. In long distances the are useless. In short distances they become mortal if all bullets hit the target. Nevertheless it requires acuraccy, unlike submachine guns, but they do more damage in less time. They should defend enemies from snipers.

These are the three minimal weapons for any good FPS (more pistol and a knife).

More advices:

Have some knowledge of the maps you're usually playing.
If you are in a well-organised clan, then make fireteams mixing the previous weapons and keep together.
Use Teamspeak for communicating. This will ensure you more fun and an enjoyable gaming.
Keep always moving and jumping when battling, unless you are a sniper with strategic purposes
The most important for improving your own aim: adjust the mouse sensibility. This will give you more freedom when moving the aiming point (crosshair) with mouse, aiming better and faster if it is well-adjusted. In AssaultCube a sensibility of 5 is rather good, but you must find your own way, testing and looking for the suitable sensibility.

To sum up, aiming, strategy and team-play are the key to maximise the enjoyment in FPS games. Try my advices, you won't be disappointed!

Extreme programming methodology: theory and experience

2008-10-30T20:54:00.017+01:00

Theory

Extreme programming (XP) is an agile development methodology, based in programming “inside out”. One of its main purposes is to provide flexibility against changing requirements, rapid releases and not much heavy processes not directly related with programming. It follows a Manifesto:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

And twelve principles:

Customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of valuable software
Welcome changing requeriments, even late in development
Deliver working software frequently (2 weeks - 2 months)
Business people and developers must work together daily
Build projects around motivated individuals
Face-to-face conversation
Working software is the primary measure of progress
Agile processes promote sustainable development
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
Simplicity
Self-organizing teams
Regular adaptation to changing circumstances

These ones are shared by all agile development methodologies. Referring more strictly to XP, talking about 4 mainpoints into this methodology is possible:

There are four variables to be controlled: Cost, Time, Quality and Scope.
Five values to be promoted: Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage and Respect.
Five principles that should guide us: Rapid feedback, Assuming simplicity, Incremental changes, Embracing change, Quality work
The twelve practises: Planning game, small releases, simple designs, automated testing, continuous integration, refactoring, pair programming, collective ownership, 40-hour week, on-site customer, coding standard, metaphor

Nevertheless, the previous statements are not always true, depends on the team and they don't need to be followed strictly (one of the advantatges of XP is the lack of full strictness against heavyweight programming processes).

These diagrams could be self-explanatories:

As it is said before, XP needs to satisfy customer by early and continuous deliveries. There is a release planning at first. Once all is planned, programmer members do their work, iterating as several times as required. Once the bucle has finished, we have to consider if we have to change something (and replan), or all is OK and can be published. Once a version is published, the project must continue improving, or otherwise the project has ended.

In every iteration (iteration stands for a programming cycle and its acceptance) a little teamwork is defined (not strictly necessary, but highly recommended), and all is programmed and tested. If the code is not accepted nor satisfies the requirements, another iteration is made. Otherwise, the piece of code is tried to be integrated with the rest of the team. If the integration is succesful, the program can be published.

This is the main process in the XP methodology. The practise could be a bit different, but not too much.

As a summary, these two tables explains the differences between an agile methodology and a heavyweight methodology like RUP (where documentation – UML diagrams and other kind of documents made by analizers and designers - is very important in this last one because the teams used to be larger):

Although they are very different processes, an agile process could become a heavyweight development process in time, but it's not the aim of this post covering this.

Practise

Practise is slightly different. In the nwiki process, the process is:

First, there is a customer which needs some requirements which should be satisfied (Moodle 2.0).
Define the tasks in order to satisfy that requirements.
Have continuous reunions with the other teammates, and explain them objectives, purposes, workflow... all things about the project that needs to be developed.
Once all developers have understood the problem and have a minimum idea about de development process (how the project will be done), split the task between them.
Every X time, meet them to see how the state of the work is, changes on requirements, discussing problems, anything else...

Firstly, only a ewiki and old nwiki migration should be done. However, after Moodlemoot event, an ouwiki migration should be done too and ewiki parser will not be longer supported. This changes will be made with less cost than it could be if a heavyweight process was used (a demonstration for the advantatges of XP).

To sum up, a heavyweight programming methodology can be used in clearly defined projects (with an extensive analysis and specification), and projects where there are involved a huge amount of developers, and quality software becomes important. For smaller teams and projects which don't have too much time, Extreme programming could be a methodology to follow.

Part of the migration finished - Documentation

2008-10-16T12:07:00.011+02:00

The logical scheme of the nwiki project has changed a bit. The conceptual models of ewiki, nwiki 1.9 and the new nwiki 2.0 are shown below:

In both cases (upgrading from nwiki 1.9 or ewiki) old tables must be saved (renamed as 'old_tablename'). In other versions of nwiki, old tables were transformed only into the new ones. Nevertheless, in this new version we can't do it.

A migration should consider the whole community who will upgrade to the new version of Moodle (and indeed, to the new version of Nwiki). There are from single users to university institutions. The last ones probably have in their databases thousands of entries to migrate (pages, wikis...), and this can be a problem: not only spending too much time migrating from old wikis; server memory could not be enough for such operation, depending on the number of pages.

The solution to this problem is importing wikis and pages dynamically.

Focus on the conceptual model of new nwiki:

At least, the wiki table must be migrated in the migrate process (all data can be migrated for this table without problem, and this must be done). Further explanations about this migration process can be found below.
There is a “wiki_instances" table. This table contains wiki identifier for an instance and who are the owner/users/groups availables to use this wiki. Filling this page at migration time would be a problem (lots of users, lots of wikis...). So at first, this table will be empty. The table will be filled dynamically in the following way:

Every time a user accesses for the first time (after a migration) into a wiki, a wiki_instances tuple will be added into the database.

“Wiki_pages” is another problem; thousands and thousands of pages. So this table won't be migrated inmediately into the process, too. Every time any user accesses to a page for the first time since the wiki was migrated, it will be migrated. (And synonyms table if it's necessary). That is why the old wiki tables need to be kept. Wiki pages will be migrated using the old wiki_pages tables (probably they will be empty progressively and when the old wiki_pages table is empty, it will be removed.

This is the mainpoint of the migration process.

Now let's see the Wiki table migration:

You can find the code in mod/wiki/db/upgrade.php in the project.

This file only can upgrade from ewiki or from nwiki 1.9. Otherwise, upgrade will not be completed and you will be notified about the problem and recommended to upgrade to nwiki 1.9 first or reinstalling ewiki.

In both cases, old wiki tables will be renamed and new tables installed. Once this is done, the migration of old tables begins. For the upgrade.php, only wiki table will be migrated (because making a full migration would last too much depending on the number of pages and wikis, reasons were explained above).

The migration of wiki table when upgrading from nwiki 1.9 to nwiki 2.0 is quite simple; most fields match in type and concept, so making the relation between fields is direct.

The migration when upgrading from ewiki to nwiki 2.0 is more complex. Some fields are direct, but others aren't. 'wtype' field from ewiki wiki table which says if students must work in groups (group), by their own (student), or they cannot edit the content (teacher). This field has a close relationship with studentmode field from new nwiki 2.0. Depending on the value of groupmode from course_modules table, studentmode value must be 0, 1 or 2:

0 = students in group, users can work together.
1 = separate students, students work on their own and no one except teacher can see each other work.
2 = students visible, students work on their own, but they can see each other.

When wtype is group or teacher, the students must work together (groupmode attribute from course_modules will separate them, not this one), so the value must be 0. If wtype is students, depending on the groupmode attribute, studentmode will have a value of 1 or 2; if groupmode = 0 or 1(no group) then studentmode = 1. Otherwise studentmode = 2.

Another attribute is htmlmode. This attribute describes if the wiki was edited via html code or ewiki parser. It's rather simple.

Finally, in both cases (ewiki and nwiki), in order to avoid running out of memory in server where there are lots of wikis, wiki tuples are retrieved in packets of 100.

Candidature for HDC

2008-10-08T08:57:00.003+02:00

Well, HDC is an easy-to-pass subject. However it requires some effort and auto-improve spirit to achieve the main objective of the subject: Speaking in public. For that, you need to lose your shame. Be a good boss isn't easy, too, and sometimes having born-capacities seems to be required for. If I get chosen as delegate, I will ensure:

Listen to all your complaints/suggestions and deliver them to the properly government institution.
A good and accurate following of the subject
If you're in a trouble with the subject and you need my assistance, I'll do my best to give it to you. My smile is yours.
If you need some personal speaking with someone to practice your own speaking skills, if I have the chance in the properly moment, I will hear and attend you gladly.

Choose me next Monday. I can ensure you you will not regret your decision :)

Bibliography

2008-10-07T22:21:00.004+02:00

Moodle Oficial Webpage: http://www.moodle.org/
Moodle 1.9 API: http://xref.moodle.org/
Meaning of Abstraction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction_%28computer_science%29
Moodlemoot homepage: http://www.moodlemoot.org/
Sakai Project: http://sakaiproject.org/portal
Google Web Toolkit homepage: http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/
Mahara Webpage: http://www.mahara.org/
Tutorials of XML, XSLT...: http://www.w3schools.com
PHP Oficial Homepage: http://www.php.net

My task: The Migration

2008-10-07T19:56:00.005+02:00

Well, this afternoon I've met the rest of Nwiki workers, for discussing about how to divide the work and what programming guidelines we should follow, and how the whole work will be done.

At first, we've discussed about which tools we will use to work. These tools are:

GIT: git is a kind of Control Version System, developed by Linus Torvalds. Over SVN it has the advantatge that maintains two repositories: 1 in the local machine and 1 repository on the Internet, so you make changes in your local, and when you feel good, upload all changes to the Internet server. It's quite similar to use as SVN.
Trac: Trac is a Tracker. For now, we will use it to manage ourselves dividing the work (opening tickets) and notifying bugs. Push the screen to zoom it in.

Once the tools are stablished, now we can begin to work. First, we should follow the Moodle Coding Guidelines and some rules for ourselves:

All functions that we program must begin with wiki_
PHPDoc to all function (all function must be well-documented, description, parameters, return...)
For all, functions we make, we should make a PHPUnit and test it. PHPUnit, in single words, are some test games to throw against the function you did to see if it works correctly or not. They all have a similar syntax. Moodle created their own method for testing PHPUnits instead of using a third-party software.
Not using $_POST[] and $_GET[] variables to get values arriving from an external resource. Instead, we have to use optional_param() function to retrieve the value, either GET or POST.
We have to keep in mind that we have to program HTML pieces of code in XHTML 1.0 Strict
All CSS that we could need to add must be added into styles.php file. Moodle fetchs this file for additional CSS parameters if they are included.
All permission which should be assigned must be located at mod/wiki/db/access.php file.

After that, we've discussed the database structure. This is the overall structure:

We must also document the application architecture. Too, we've mentioned some important files to consider:

lib.php -> functions that Moodle calls automatically.
locallib.php -> functions for internal use.
version.php -> for allowing Moodle to notice a DB upgrade
weblib.php -> to print screens
languages files
export folder -> for exporting methods
db folder -> install.xml, upgrade.php...

After all this, I've been assigned to do the Database migration from ewiki and older nwiki version to the new wiki (Probably I have to program the upgrade.php file). Pigui told me that it could take me 2 months (omg!). Let's see the hardeness of my task... Time will tidy things...

Training: repair an nwiki bug

2008-10-07T14:34:00.005+02:00

Well, as a training, before entering into the Nwiki refactoring project, my project leader asked me for repairing an nwiki bug: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=107332

This bug is located (into the module directory of nwiki) into db/upgrade.php. The bug is simply understandable: From the previous version of Nwiki to the new version of Nwiki the "wiki" table changed a bit. One of these changes was modifying the type of 1 field from String to Integer (the evaluation field). The previous developer programmed the type change inside out (with a DML function called change_type_field()). However there is a problem. If the table/field is empty, there isn't any problem. But if the evaluation field was filled previously with an string value, the conversion from string to integer cannot be done, and the upgrade fails.

My task is repair this undesired behavior. The way to do this was:

Create a new auxiliar field for the evaluation field in the wiki table, in order to store there the integer value of the string.
Once this auxiliar field is filled for all table tuples, erase the evaluation field and create a new one with type integer. Once this is done, dump all auxiliar field data to this new evaluation field and erase the auxiliar field.

Having DML and DDL Moodle libraries (a libraries used to update-query-manipulate moodle database) it shouldn't be too much difficult. Actually, it isn't. However I needed to use some special update SQL instruction with a WHERE clause, and I've not found any Moodle function to do such a thing, so I've done it with a function called execute_sql(SQL sentence), where you put as parameter an SQL query, and this query will be executed to the database.

What's the matter? All DBMS does not have the same SQL syntax. Functions provided by Moodle DML libraries solves this problem, but as I said before, I haven't found any upgrade function to use with a WHERE clause.

I hope Pigui will give me some assistance. But all my work will be thrown away with Nwiki refactoring, so Pigui will not spend too much time on this. And for me, I've seen I'm capable of doing it and repair bugs with work. I think I'm ready to do whatever task could be assigned to me.

This afternoon all scolarship holders will have a meeting to discuss the methodology we should follow for developing nwiki to fit with the new Moodle 2.0 architecture (probably available in early 2009). This afternoon I'm going to write a summary of the main clues of my meeting.

I post the code I made in order to repair the bug (it is incomplete and fails, but the main idea is clearly visible):


  $table = new XMLDBTable('wiki');

  $field = new XMLDBField('evaluation');

  $field->setAttributes(XMLDB_TYPE_INTEGER, '3', XMLDB_UNSIGNED, XMLDB_NOTNULL, null, null, null, '0', 'studentdiscussion');



  $auxfield = new XMLDBField('evaluation2');

  $auxfield->setAttributes(XMLDB_TYPE_INTEGER, '3', XMLDB_UNSIGNED, XMLDB_NOTNULL, null, null, null, '0', 'studentdiscussion');

  add_field($table, $auxfield);

  

  /*Substitution*/

  $evaluation_values = get_records('wiki','','','','id,evaluation');

  foreach ($evaluation_values as $key => $single_value) {

   //TODO: let's substitute the evaluation string for the integer value.

   //To pigui: Falten el valor dels strings

   if ($single_value->evaluation == '') {

    $a = 0;

   }

   else if ($single_value->evaluation == '') {

    $a = 1; 

   }

   else {

    $a = 2;

   }

   $quer = 'UPDATE '.$CFG->prefix.'wiki SET evaluation2 = '.$a.' WHERE id = '.$single_value->id;

   execute_sql($quer);

  }

  //Now, drop table evaluation, and recreate it as an Integer field

  drop_field($table,$field);

  add_field($table, $field);

  

  //Dump all evaluation2 field into new evaluation field

  $quer = 'UPDATE '.$CFG->prefix.'wiki SET evaluation = evaluation2';

  execute_sql($quer);

  

  //Drop aux field

  drop_field($table,$auxfield);

Sequence diagram about OpenSyllabus integration in Moodle

2008-09-29T19:36:00.013+02:00

Now, I've finished the sequence diagrams. Push "read more" to see the diagrams of each operation I've implemented. All comments and explanations are made into the diagram itself:

This is the Main operation:
XSLT transformation operation:
Zip compression operation:
getFileValue operation:
The definition() operation in syllabi_import_form class:

Class diagram about OpenSyllabus integration in Moodle

2008-09-29T19:04:00.006+02:00

Well, I've finished doing the class diagram for the plugin I developed for Moodle:

Explanations

Previously in moodle existed a class called Moodleform. This class is intended to be subclassed, as it works as a template for all forms in Moodle. So I subclassed it in order to make my own form for OpenSyllabus plugin. The functions (all their sequence diagrams will be posted in my next post) I needed to redefine were:

definition(): this operation is called by the constructor and builds the form with the fields you define on it
definition_after_data: for making some validations or instructions after data is submitted.
getFileValue(): this operation retrieves the name of the uploaded file.
validation(): this operation makes some validations before the form is accepted. In my case, as I only had to make a prototype, I redefined it empty.
add_action_buttons(): adds the "submit" and cancel buttons to the form.

As I said, I will provide sequence diagrams later. Once I defined the form, now only we must bind this form to our Main process and the logics of our problem is finished. It's easy to understand, it isn't?

The importance of UML in the software programming world

2008-09-29T12:36:00.002+02:00

It is well known that one of my preferred fields in computer enginering world is software enginering. I love read and make UML diagrams, because it is an easier way to understand and make programs than following a methodology properly called "eXtreme Programming" (consists on programming inside out).

Indeed, it's easier understanding a 1-sheet diagram where you see a box with some letters inside and some arrows than "public class TEXT { A b; B a; etc etc;}". Learning process about how a program/project works is done extremely faster. And that is why I prefer reading some UML diagrams than reading code.

However in my PFC, Moodle lacks about a good UML documentation in order to make programmers to work easier. That has disappointed me a bit, because I expected I would apply all my software enginering knowledgement and improve my skill in that field. I made the OpenSyllabus prototype (and learn how to do it) with some file examples of Moodle project.

I will propose to Marc (or Pigui) that in my next work in DFWiki refactoring I want to document in UML all my work (if possible). I feel ready to do it and I've leant some basic PHP, enough to do a good job (and, of course, understood Moodle modules, format course, blocks, thinking about the ID substitution, it should not be too much hard but it requires spending some time...).

My objective about this proposition is having a deeper knowledgement about Software Enginering and working methodology. In order to achieve that, I was preparing my PC to make nice class diagrams and sequence diagrams.

The "Free Software Market" about UML isn't too much good. I've tested some programs and very few ones completed my needs:

ArgoUML: It lacks of a very intuitive interface and some basic functionalities that I find vital, and it doesn't allow me to do things in the way I want (bad class diagrams, bad sequence diagrams)
Violet: It is not updated to UML2, so I couldn't do some stuff like fragments in sequence diagrams
UMLet: It would be really good if it had a simple, but very necessary tool: a ZOOM!
BoUML: You can't do constructors in sequence diagrams.

So, after some research, I found 2 programs which fit on my needs:

SDedit: Probably the best sequence diagram editor I've ever seen. It is not a WYSIWYG editor like the others, you have to know some easy-to-use code (read the program's help) to make sequence diagrams. You type a simple code, and the diagram is drawn while you're doing that. Once you are used to it, the sequence diagram production speeds up in a considerable way, and the diagrams it makes are really nice.

As it is not a WYSIWYG program, it introduces us to a new philosophy: Dragging&dropping, mouse moves... it's rather slower than simply typing some short lines with keyboard. I leant this concept and idea, and I find it well-builded in empirical demonstrations. I, for instance, I can make sequence diagrams fastly. With a "drawing" (WYSIWYG) editor I spend more time. I can assure you this.
Dia: SDedit is a program that has sense: Sequence diagrams are just this, sequential. They can be builded and all drawn objects can have a fixed position in the diagram and it will be well shown; in class diagrams it's not possible to do that (or it is really harder), because you can position your items and classes in many ways and are all pretty or more understandable.

I was looking for a program to design class diagrams as I design sequence diagrams in SDedit, by code; nevertheless, for the reasons explained above, I have not find any program such that (or I'm so stupid that I am not able to find it), so I had to give up and use a decent WYSIWYG editor. I found Dia for this, it's a great program, similar to Visio, it allows me to do very nice class diagrams in UML. It is far better than all described above, but by default it doesn't allow to create associative classes (it's not a huge problem but it could be good to have them), and last time I tried it, after forcing a bit the program capabilities, I recived a Segmentation Fault, loosing my time. It was not very happy, but I will give him a new try.

Blocks, modules and discovers

2008-09-16T18:56:00.003+02:00

Well, today I've been working on how to make 'foo' blocks and modules.

Making blocks has been quite easy because in moodle wiki there is a very well explained page about how to make blocks for Moodle: link to the page. I upload the block I've programmed so anyone can see 'in life' the progress:

Foo block

As you can see, making a block in Moodle it's very easy. But making modules... it's rather harder than blocks. There isn't documentation as good as blocks, and the template they give you it's a bit confusing, specially for the database managing.

While trying to learn how can I program a foo module, I think I've learnt accidentally how I can manage databases in Moodle. For the module, I need to create a database table in one of the files of module, but I don't know where and how... I expect that the following libraries I've found will be useful to me:

In the lib folder of Moodle, there is 2 libraries: ddllib.php and dmllib.php. The first one contains functions to alter the main structure of the database (create and alter tables, for instance). The second one is used to access data (like inserting new rows, retrieve values, delete values, etc).

Let's follow working on it... I've not finished yet :)

15th September: Meeting with Marc Alier: the IDea

2008-09-15T16:52:00.007+02:00

Well, today I've started classes at UPC again (finally, I just wanted it :D), and after my first class in "Web Application System Design" and looking for my scolarship holder table (OMG, it was an enormous and dirty table, but I've cleaned it; I hope I will find it as clean as I left it tomorrow), I met Marc.

The objective of the meeting was to show him the OpenSyllabus integration in Moodle prototype I made and "look for" more work.

After Marc took a look into my work, he noticed something he didn't like: Lesson outlines (see image) are all wikis (1 wiki per lesson). This was the unique way I found to solve a problem:

Marc wanted me to make only 1 wiki, and the lesson outlines were mere links to a wiki page from that wiki. The problem is that links are stored in the Moodle course XML files as static links.
These links have a number parameter, the wiki identifier. (For example, ID 10). When restoring a course, moodle assigns a different ID automatically to the new modules of the course, so the wiki will have probably another ID different than 10. But the lesson outline link has the ID 10 as parameter!!! (static link).

So, what can I do now? Well, Marc told me that I have to find the way to change the ID of these links to redirect to the current wiki ID. How can I do this?

As a first requirement, I can make an abstraction:

First, I have to found, in the restoring process, where the new wiki ID is given and restored.
Then, after the piece of code I found before, I have to retrieve the new ID value.
Then, I have to locate the code where the link resources are restored.
Finally, I have to modify every link that will be restored in the previous founded code, retrieving the current link direction, and modifying the id parameter to the previous retrieved ID value from wiki.

I hope it won't be so hard to perform, however Marc's purposes for this piece of work are merely for my own learning and education.

Marc has explained to me that I will work on DFWiki code refactoring (lot of work is coming OMG), so as a training he demanded me to program a "foo" (example) Moodle format course, Moodle module and a Moodle block. This job has priority for me over the "ID" job explained previously.

In Moodle wiki I remember founding something related with that (some module/block/course format templates), so I'm going to take a look immediately.

Ok guys, let's work!

Next round: The XSLT part

2008-09-12T14:52:00.002+02:00

Once I've programmed the PHP part of the prototype, I had to program the other part of the project: the XSLT file.

Let's go back for a while; the main purpose of the project is, having a syllabi (OpenSyllabus XML course file), I have to make a moodle course automatically according to that syllabi.

Moodle courses can be saved as XML files and be restored with that XML file. With this premise, and knowing that syllabi are also XML files, we can see that we need to transform in some way the syllabi into a Moodle course. The way for doing it is called XSLT (eXtensible StyleSheet Language Tranform).

The process for making the XSL file:

First, having a syllabi example, I've made manually a Moodle course.
Then, I've stored the XML file into my computer to work with it (making a backup of the course). Now, the objective is to transform the syllabi XML file into a Moodle XML course file with the aid of XSLT language.

(in the previous entry of my blog I wrote about the PHP part and his relantionship with XSLT part).

I never did any XSL transformation or programmed a XSL file, and I needed learning some advanced XSL features immediatelly not recommended for a newbie who wants to learn XSL as a hobby :). Also I had to adapt the xsl syntax to moodle, because Moodle needs "special" considerations:

Moodle xml files have very separated parts in the document. However, some parts have a very close relationship, and this relation can only be linked with an Identifier. But this identifier needs to be independent of the XML syllabi, so after some heavy research, the XSL function I needed for this was "generate-id" (this function generates a unique ID for a node, ideal for the lesson bucle).
I didn't know why Moodle, after the point 1 application, gave me errors didn't allow me to create a course. The explanation was that generate-id generates an id like "id7623472". Moodle only reads numbers, not strings!, so I have to discard the "id" string with "substring" xsl function.
In bucles, I needed incremental variables (aka i++ :)). Nevertheless, "variable" xsl element doesn't allow changing his first assigned value (OMG, problem!), because XSL is a declarative language, not a procedural one like C++ or PHP. The first and valid approach I found to solve this problem was the "number" xsl element. In a bucle, it makes something like a counter, from 1 to N being N the number of iterations. I found it a rustic and 'vaste' method, but valid for my purposes :)

After all these ones, and spending some time, finally I've finished the XSL file and it works perfectly. But this XSL file is built over a syllabi prototype, not over a final version, so I will have to modify it a lot when I recive it.

Now, I've finished all my work on OpenSyllabus integration prototype for Moodlemoot for now until "new external requirements" (probably they will arrive soon).

As you can see, in my blog entries I'm writing about XML files and other kind of resources, but I don't put any example to allow you understanding me clearly. Once I finish the project I will upload all those files and will modify all posts adding to them the mentioned ones (or until my teacher tells me that it could be good to upload them while they are in process).

Next round: Implementing the OpenSyllabus integration we've though for Moodle

2008-09-07T17:25:00.007+02:00

Finally, the requirements for OpenSyllabus integration into Moodle are clearly defined. The main purpose: having a Syllabi (an OpenSyllabus XML file), Moodle has to process this XML file by means of an XSL file, which transforms the original Osyl XML file into a Moodle XML course file, and then process it to have a new Moodle course ready for being used.

However, I only have two more weeks to finish the work (all must be ready soon for Moodlemoot).

The main abstraction (God heavens, I love this word!) is (the main tasks):

Create a new administration option, called 'Import OpenSyllabus course'.
That option will link to a Moodle Form, where the administrator will be able to upload an XML file.
Once the user has selected an Osyl XML file, and he submits it, the file is uploaded.
After that, the uploaded file will be parsed with an XSL parser, who will transform the original XML into another Moodle readable XML course file.
In order to reuse some original Moodle code (concretely the course restoration code) the output XML file needs to be zipped.
Once the file has been zipped, now is the time to invoke the restoration process with the zipped file as parameter.

Until here, all seems to be tidy and clear. Yes, it is. This is the main specification however, I've found some personal problems (the design, how can I made it? how can I implement it?):

I've no idea about PHP (I'm a pure Java developer, I've never touched PHP).
How can I add a new link (which points to the import form) in the Moodle admin block?
How can I create a form for allowing a user to upload a file compatible with Moodle?
How can I retrieve the file? And the name of the file?
How can I store a file into an specific folder in PHP?
How can I process a XML file with an XSL parser with my XSL file to transform it into another XML file in PHP?
How can I zip files in PHP?
How can I reuse the restore implementation?

Well, all these questions have their proper answer. But where can I find the answers and understand them? Afortunately I've already found them, however, it has not been easy:

Or I'm stupid and I can't find it, or Moodle lacks of a good developer documentation (such as complete class diagrams, specifications, sequence diagrams, proper explanations...). It only has an API over hundreds of files composing Moodle (omg, finding something has been really hard).
I'm tired of searching concrete functions among the API files. Is the Moodle API useful or useless? Can I do my job with brute programming? Or has someone implemented what I need yet?

After some days of desperate study:

PHP is an Object Oriented language, so a port from Java should not be too difficult. PHP is rather different than Java, however it has some similarities (like classes, attributes...), so with some practice, learning PHP should be easier (in fact, I believe I know now PHP and now I can program better than some time ago)
I've found the admin block is implemented in admin/settings. I've located my option link in courses.php file:

$ADMIN->add('courses', new admin_externalpage('osylimp', get_string('osylimp', 'admin'), $CFG->wwwroot . '/course/osyl.php'));
Moodle has a superclass for forms, called moodleform (located at lib/formslib.php). Using a form example (edit_form.php located in course folder), I've created a new subclass, called syllabi_import_form.

But the form example doesn't have a field for uploading files. How can I make one? After lot of websearching and coffees, I've found that I can add a line into the definition function of my new class:
$mform->addElement('file','syllabi', 'XML course file','maxlength="150" size="20"');
There were lots of similar lines in the document, however, replacing the first parameter with 'file' I've created a field for uploading files.
For retrieving the file value, exists a moodle function for forms: getElementValue. Passing as parameter the name of the file, it will retrieve the value entered by the user. Nevertheless, the value returned by getElementValue for the file field was an array. Arrays in PHP are rather different than Java:

For expressing an array, in Java we use this expression: namevariable[integer]. In PHP, is something similar, but different. Arrays can be used in many ways, like hash tables, priority queues, stacks... so you can use also strings into the [], and mapping a key to a value in the array. See PHP documentation for further explanation.

Finally, I could retrieve the name of the file :)
For retrieving the file and store it, Moodle forms have a method for storing into an specific path all files the user wants to upload: "save_files".
There are lots of XSL parser for PHP: the most interesting I found was Sablotron. However, I couldn't get it working, so I've used the built-in XSLT parser (libxslt library). In PHP documentation about XSL I've found some functions to get it working. This is the main procedure:
$xp = new XSLTProcessor(); //First we create a XSLT process $xsl = new DomDocument; //Then, we must load an XSL file $xsl->load('../OsylCourse.xsl'); $xp->importStylesheet($xsl); //After that, we must import the XSL file //to the XSLT process $xml_doc = new DomDocument; //now we have to load the XML file $xml_doc->load($CFG->dataroot.'/3/backupdata/'.$file['name']); /*finally, we have to apply the transformation to the document and save it to a file*/ if ($xml_out = $xp->transformToDOC($xml_doc)) { $xml_out->save($CFG->dataroot.'/3/backupdata/moodle.xml'); } else { trigger_error('XSL transformation failed.', E_USER_ERROR); }
Zipping a file is quite easy:
$zip = new ZipArchive(); //First we create an instance of a Zip file /*Then, with open system call we create a zip file*/ if ($zip->open($CFG->dataroot.'/3/backupdata/course.zip', ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE)!==TRUE) { exit("cannot open"); } //Add as many files as you want (also directories) $zip->addFile($CFG->dataroot.'/3/backupdata/moodle.xml', 'moodle.xml'); //Close the zip file $zip->close();
For further information see PHP Documentation for ZIP.
Reuse the restoration code is easy. Simply pass as a parameter the recently zipped file.

Well, that's all for now. However, there are plenty of bugs. For now, I'm only making a functional prototype for Moodlemoot... Doing things well requires time :)

The 3000 most important words of English - v1.1

2008-08-10T10:35:00.004+02:00

I've uploaded an improved printing version of the 3000 English word list. Due to problems with Openoffice and Excel, I've done my work with Word. Also I put a PDF version.

Doc version PDF version

The 3000 most important words of English

2008-08-08T11:05:00.003+02:00

Finally, after lots of hours of working, I've finished translating to Spanish the 3000 most important words of English (I found them in the Oxford dictionary CD). These words are the most necessary ones to speak and write English, so I'm sure they will be useful to many people interested on it.

I publish "the Excel", and you can edit, modify and distribute it if you want, nevertheless I wish you keep the name of the original autor (me) on the file.

Link to the file

The right way of my project

2008-07-24T20:09:00.004+02:00

I've had a nice conversation with Marc last Tuesday. Maybe it has been the most interesting meeting I've had with him. We have defined a good path I must follow (finally!).

From the XML file created in OpenSyllabus (the syllabi file) we will make a port to the Moodle courses. Nevertheless, how can I make this port?

Marc's idea is making a new option for Moodle in Moodle course creation. Now Moodle can make courses from Moodle course backups (these backups are also XML files). So we have to make a new option, called "Import OpenSyllabus course", where the user can select an Osyl XML syllabi and import it into Moodle.

Once imported, this course will have all information the XML syllabi defines.

For achieve that, I will do a simple task: adquire a complete XML file for testing purposes, and manually build a Moodle course with all information I can see in that XML file (wiki's, lessons, title, description...).

Tasks:

Obtain the DTD of Osyl XML syllabi.
Obtain a complete XML syllabi for testing.
Make manually a course with that XML.
Compare the XML backup of that course and the XML file and build a XSLT for transform the Osyl XML into a Moodle readable XML file.
Define the requirements which can be needed for the "import OpenSyllabus course" tool.

Es la memoria nuestro más preciado talento?

2008-07-24T19:55:00.003+02:00

Con este post, sólo pretendo generar un poco de reflexión filosófica hacia lo que yo considero como nuestro bien más preciado: la memoria.

Imagina que estás soltero. Cuando estabas solo y te sentabas debajo de una palmera, estabas solo sentado debajo de una palmera (sí, así es xD).

De repente, la mujer de tu vida aparece y mientras estás con ella, eres el hombre más feliz del mundo. Pero claro, no puedes estar con esa persona siempre pegado, y se tiene que ir a hacer un viaje.

Luego, mientras tu chica está de viaje, te sientas otra vez debajo de aquella misma palmera. Otra vez solo, debajo de esa palmera. Si tomaran una foto de esa situación antes y una foto de esa situación después, sería exactamente la misma foto. Estás exactamente igual. Significa que has perdido tiempo de tu vida conociendo a esa persona? NO!

Realmente no estás exactamente igual, hay un pequeño detalle que ha cambiado. No se puede ver desde el exterior, pero sí desde el interior. La sombra de esa chica flota por encima de tu cabeza. Mientras estás sentado, la estás recordando. Notas como el tiempo ha avanzado, notas como el tiempo te ha hecho cambiar y estás distinto, notas que realmente estás vivo.

Y es que la memoria es la única manera que tenemos de poder percibir el cambio, la única manera que tenemos de poder evolucionar, de poder vivir como humanos, de poder aprender y crecer mentalmente.

Pero qué ocurriría si una enfermedad como el Alzheimer nos despojara de este don?

Realmente uno puede ser feliz y estar autorrealizado trabajando?

2008-07-21T15:30:00.002+02:00

Ayer me fui a dar una vuelta por Girona con Helena, y mientras íbamos caminando, por alguno de esos casuales que tiene la vida, me encontré con mi amigo Eric (Sarge para los ogamers, el que hasta hace poco era moderador de ahí) y mi amiga Sandy. Con la carisma típica que le caracteriza, pues entablamos distintas e interesantes conversaciones, entre ellas, EL TRABAJO.

Siempre he creído (y creo!) que el trabajo humaniza (tal y como dijo Karl Marx). En un trabajo aprendes y con él, mejoras y te realizas como persona (hasta un cierto punto, immediatamente remarco eso). Por supuesto, hay trabajos que de autorrealización, para mi gusto, tienen poco y son más trabajos "para sobrevivir" (por ejemplo, como el que mencionamos, señora de la limpieza).

Puedes estar trabajando de algo que te mole mucho (mecánico, diseñador de programas o incluso jefe de proyectos), cobrando un pastón. No obstante, en esa clase de trabajos llega a un punto en el que dejas de aprender tanto como antes (o prácticamente, ya has aprendido todo lo que debías) y ya no te realiza ni te mola quizás tanto como antes: entras en la monotonía y ese trabajo no te realiza más (se convierte en una simple fuente de ingresos).

También un trabajo, a menos que tengas un horario de puta madre, puede llegar a ser una putada. En un trabajo tienes una serie de obligaciones y una serie de horas a las que tienes que ir y una serie de horas que por cojones hay que ir. Ya puedes estar en el trabajo que siempre has soñado y cobrando una pasta ,que si los horarios que tienes impiden que puedas ver cada día a la esposa que tanto amas, ese curro pasará a no ser tan "de ensueño".

Así pues, cómo ser superfeliz según yo?

Trabajar en sitios donde cada día puedas hacer cosas diferentes e interesantes para ti, y que cada día aprendas más y cada día te sientas mejor, más a gusto con tu trabajo y más autorrealizado (Eric dice que esto es imposible).
Tener un horario que te permita compatibilizar ese trabajo con todo lo que quieres en esta vida (ya sean amigos, ya sea pareja).
Un sueldo que te permita vivir de forma holgada.

Sí, un trabajo perfecto debe cumplir esos 3 perfiles. Pero... EXISTE??????

Eric dice que no, todos los trabajos acaban siendo monótonos, sea el que sea. Yo digo que sí; aunque sólo conozco 1 trabajo que pueda ser así: Profesor de universidad (que a su vez, sea investigador).

Ser profe de universidad es la reostia en bicicleta (almenos profe de la FIB, y para ello me voy a basar en el profesor Marc Alier). Parece que él es totalmente feliz: Cada día se pasa viajando arriba y abajo -gastos pagados- (que si Alemania, que si Burkina Faso, que si Las Vegas...) y se lleva a su mujer, con lo cual se lo debe pasar bomba viajando. Luego, dando clase, las da de una forma que no sólo se lo pasa bien él, sino que además se lo pasan bien los alumnos. Y luego, dirige una serie de proyectos que no solo generan conocimiento y ayudan a expandir el conocimiento (Moodle, DFWikiLabs...), sino que además siempre está dando conferencias y asistiendo a ellas y aprendiendo cada día más y más sobre este mundo que cambia tan rápidamente, y conociendo a gente importante del mundo de los sistemas de información, comilonas, etc. Vamos, todo un lujo y todo un estilo de vida que, almenos a mi y visto así, me resulta envidiable (por dios, que alguien me corrija si me equivoco).

Almenos esa es mi "excepción" con la que pretendo decir que el trabajo puede realizar SIEMPRE. Por supuesto, estas cosas así son poco comunes. Normalmente todos los trabajos son los típicos de pasarte 8 horas dando el callo como un cabrón, aprendes lo que sea y luego ahí te quedas para mantener a tu família, y luego los horarios no coinciden con los de tus hijos cuando terminan el colegio / con el trabajo de tu esposa.

Es chungo buscarse una vida así, pero para ello, hay que sacrificarse un tiempo y... estudiar?

FICS and Battle for Wesnoth

2008-07-16T12:42:00.007+02:00

As someone know, one of my favorite games style are strategy games. I have always loved these kind of games (my curriculum can talk alone: Worms Armageddon, Age of Empires II, Warcraft III -the best game I've ever played-, etc.). I've played another game genres that sticked me on my chair (Final Fantasy series, Need for Speed...).

However, I have lot of work in the university, and now I can't play all games I played in the past.

Nevertheless,I want to mention two GNU Games that you can enjoy a lot (I've enjoyed them): One of these is chess and the other, Battle for Wesnoth.

Everyone knows what is chess. However, there is some people who doesn't have a partner for playing it every time he wants. 1 GNU chess server exists, called FICS, where you can play for free with other players (or your friends). This server has his website in http://www.freechess.org.

For playing on this server, you need a chess client. Lots of interfaces/clients are avaible for all platforms (the most used is Jin, an interface you can you on the web or in your PC, written in Java and is compatible with all platforms). However, as a Linux user, I use eboard.

Regardless the interface you choose, you have to create a FICS account to play on the server in the main website. (It's quite easy and it's free), or playing as guest.

Once you connect to FICS, you will be ready to play chess with other people. Interfaces often has a “seek graph” where you can see all people that want a match. If you want to play with someone, write the command “seek 2 12” (for example, for a 2 minutes and 12 increment game). Read the help for more help (or ask me).

If you want to talk on a chat channel or to an user, use the command “tell user/channel text to say”.

Ahhh, also, write the following command to add me to friends: “+notify davigetto”. I will be notified if you add me to friends and if you wish, we can play some matches :)

The following game is Battle for Wesnoth. The main website is http://www.wesnoth.org. Again, this game can be played in all platforms. It's a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme (with orcs, elves, dwarfs...) where the main objective is “destroy the opponent”. It's quite easy to play this game, and when you catch “the feeling of the game” you can be attracted strongly, so be careful :)

Once again, if you want to play with me at this game, send me an email or a comment to this post. However, in this game, opposite to Warcraft III, matches often are very long, so often I prefer playing the campaign mode.

Also, if you wish, I can play with you to the mythical Warcraft III... for remembering oldies purposes :)

Mahara e-Portfolio and OpenSyllabus: Fuuuusion-ha?!

2008-07-15T11:27:00.005+02:00

Well, until now, I have been talking about OpenSyllabus, their benefits and their objectives, ideas about how me and my partners could integrate it into moodle, how can we use and interpret the XML file that it generates, etc.

I recived a call from Marc telling me that the important question about OpenSyllabus is the idea behind it, not the technology behind it. Also, he told me about Mahara Portfolio, and that he is also interested on it. I should think about how we can integrate into Moodle Mahara Portfolio and OpenSyllabus.

Mahara is a CMS Project developed by Catalyst IT, a brother project of Moodle (they have between them some collaborations). It objective is similar to Moodle and Sakai, create social learning networks and share resources between members (The typical web 2.0). It has a interesting tool, called Portfolio. I will explain it in detail immediately.

Yesterday I invested the whole afternoon in install on my PC Mahara (I followed the guide in the oficial webpage, but it was quite difficult) and make working OpenSyllabus into Eclipse (omg, 3 hours for making it working good!). Regardless, now I have a full working mahara and OpenSyllabus on my PC and I can take a look to code when I want.

After that, I could explore what is Mahara, and what is Portfolio. And O-M-G! It seems to be a nice CMS and Portfolio a nice tool! (I say seems because I have only tested it one day, however I can see interesting uses for myself :D). You know what is a portfolio, right? The typical folder where you store your drafts, currículums, learning resources... Well, Mahara implements something similar:

First, it has a complete and interesting user profile (where you can put your personal information, like other CMS systems). Nevertheless, it's different in Mahara. In your profile you can define your own Curriculum Vitae (Certifications, books and publications, education history, employment history), your academic/career goals, and what are your skills. Moodle doesn't have an user profile as great as Mahara.
Portfolio allow users to upload files (their notes, pdfs, even source code) in a structured way (in folders). Also it allows creating view pages for every user (blogs, etc...). However, it's bugged for now.

So, Mahara Portfolio is a good tool to allow students having their own Curriculums and notes in a structured and organized way.

Now, How can we integrate Mahara and OpenSyllabus into Moodle once we know what are their advantatges and disadvantatges? I've got some ideas. I write one of them:

Modify the Moodle user profile to make it equal to Mahara user profile and Portfolio. With a good user profile, users and students would be engaged in organizing their notes and their curriculums, sharing them among other students. This will improve their learning experience and their learning performance.
Add/embed OpenSyllabus to Moodle for creating easy and uniform syllabi, and allow teachers to create courses in a very easy way. This would improve the organization of courses and their upgrading.

Well, in 21th I'm talking with Marc and Pigui about all of these.

Hey, I'm really enjoying this project! :D

PD: I attach two screens about Mahara profile and portfolio.

A summary of my Osyl crusade

2008-07-12T09:22:00.017+02:00

Well, I will write some lines about my "adventures" through OpenSyllabus in a kind of Summary.

As I did the last days, I don't have to research too deep into technological aspect of OpenSyllabus for trying to get a path for integrate it into Moodle. Technology often can be incompatible (Sakai OpenSyllabus uses GWT -Java- and Moodle uses PHP). My research, as Marc told me, must be looking for what there are behind Opensyllabus, what is their 'working flux'. In simple words, 'HOW HAVE THEY DONE IT?'

Now I've stopped reading the books of all programming languages and related technologies I was reading. Now is the time for open my 'client agenda' and make some calls (messenger, mail, phone...) and have some conversations with the staff of Sakai community (Jacques Raynauld and cia). I have until 21th July to get all information I can.

I've recived a good amount of information in my mail/MSN conversations. Jacques sent me Powerpoints and PDFs explaining what is OpenSyllabus, its objectives and its technology. Nevertheless I want to extract some points which try to refer as little as possible to technological part:

The syllabi around all universities have a common structure. However, information in a Syllabi can be redundant. What solution can we use? Osyl uses XML files for achieve that, XML files that have a structure that Sakai can represent. I wonder if a database could be used in the same way XML is used...

So, XML exchange is used to represent data. Does it mean that in the local machine, a little copy of Sakai is stored to get asynchrony?
I got an account for testing the OpenSyllabus they have implemented into Sakai. QUÉ GUAY! (Parezco un anuncio de juguetes...). Also I got the source code of Sakai (omg, 400MB file!!!!)
The architecture is something like this:
In Moodle, when you build a course, you have manually to add all resources that can be needed (wikis, blogs, exercises...). In OpenSyllabus, through the Syllabi defined from one subject (for example, ES2), meanwhile the course is advancing in date, wikis, exercises, lessons and all required data is automatically published (well, it's what I understand). I believe that Sakai does that in that XML file and with a good code.

Maybe there are more points that I've eluded, I will think of them if I have the chance.

Also I am now trying to get running OpenSyllabus in my machine through Eclipse. However I have some problems with GWT Libraries. I sent Claude Coulombe, one of the Sakai 'masters', a mail asking for some help (yes, I know what you think, but after talking, you must know that I have tried to do all I was in my hands and I can't make it working).

OpenSyllabus and the path to Moodlemoot

2008-07-10T09:26:00.003+02:00

Well, in these days, I've been very busied trying to understand and manage a tool for creating syllabi, called "OpenSyllabus". Jacques is one of the managers of this project. I told with him to know what is OpenSyllabus.

After that appointment, my task will be embed this tool into Moodle, and make a lecture and a demonstration in Moodlemoot event. For that, now I'm reading some books of:

PHP
AJAX
Javascript
HTML/CSS/XHTML
XML

I have lot of work for now...

My PROP project: Restaurant

2008-06-19T22:43:00.003+02:00

Well, I've uploaded my PROP project. Compilation an execution instructions are included in the tar.gz. The program is written in Java, so it works in all OS platforms.

Enjoy playing with it :D: Restaurant Project

My experience among Java, C, C++ and PHP: How to learn a language?

2008-06-13T16:20:00.010+02:00

Learning a programming language is easier than it seems. But if you claim to learn any language without spending lot of time, you need a good scheduling and a little organization.

It's logical, a building can't start from the roof: We need a solid base where we can begin to build a house; However, the methods I learnt from my University 3 years ago were not the best method to begin.

I begin learning Java, a full Object Oriented programming language. Omg, that was horrible for me! OO languages are great, fantastic, but are horribly for beginners, especially if you've never programmed before. In OO, there are lots of concepts that at first, they may be "innocuous" (Inheritance, Polymorph, Encapsulation...).

When I began, teacher spoke to us about unknown words: class??? method??? (I understood the word method like 'methodology', not 'function'!), and bad explanations about that... I was really disappointed and I lose my heart.

If you really like programming, and you want to do great things, be patient, keep going, the world was not made in seven days!
If you are a really beginner, please, don't start with a full oriented programming language like Java. Begin with something simpler, like C or PHP, where you don't need to apply the object oriented concepts (reserve memory space with news, pointers, class, attributes... more complex concepts for a beginner).
Read! Read! Read! Be used to read! For your mother, read! For you, read lots of manuals and tutorials until you understand the concepts! You can find them around de WWW!

All programming languages have little examples for testing. The most popular and simplest example in all programming languages is "Hello World" (or "Goodbye, cruel World" xD). This example will give you a simple and basic concept about how the language works.

Practice, practice a lot, it's the most effective way to learn a programming language!

Doing this, you will get some notions about language syntax, but it's pretty harder to be a good programmer. Making programs requires lot of logic, a heavy and solid mental structure (where I must put a while? Where I must put a condition?). For me, acquiring this mentality required more than 1 year (omg! you could say). Well, be a good programmer requires a lot of time, a lot of reading and a lot of acknowledge (practice, too) for acquire this mentality. But there are strategies to accomplish this.

Programs can be crazy for you: you open a program, and usually, you will ask yourself: How has this program been made? You must divide the problem in more little parts: Which operations are hidden? Which data must be shown? Which parts is this part of the program composed? Here we enter in a basic and, maybe, the most important word in programming world:

ABSTRACTION

Abstraction, in simple words, means "Divide a problem in less difficult problems that you can solve easily".

EDIT 20:34

Read tutorials and manuals about how to be a great programmer (It's easy, the only requirement is motivation).

My counsels:

Begin programming with a language like PHP or C (in his single form, without touching OO).
After that, try to do any interesting program, or be practiced.
After that, try an object orientate language, like C++ or Java. Learn the meaning of inheritance, polymorph, software changeability... You can find lots of manuals about these languages, but if you want to understand the benefits from Object Oriented languages (I can't live without them) read Software Engineering books, and understand the design patterns.

In the future, I will enter harder with this theme through my project (probably), but I love Software Engineering and sure I will write lots of articles about this world.

HTML and CSS: a really useful tools

2008-06-10T12:09:00.005+02:00

Well, as I said previously, I need to learn for Moodle Project some web design languages. 2 of them are HTML and CSS. I am reading a book called "HTML, XHTML and CSS Bible" (extremely recommended reading it if you're interested in learning about this).

I've discovered some interesting things:

Learning these languages does not require lot of time. I've learned the basis and I could practice the acknowledge I've acquired in no more than 2 days.
I deduce the most part of HTML tags are equals (except for, maybe, html, head and body tags), the only difference among them is that they have been built with the language in with different styles (Please, anyone correct me if I've made any enormous mistake and I'm wrong).
Making your webpages pretty is easy if you use CSS. You can create new tags for HTML using CSS declaring them with an style, or the existing tags (body, ul, table... for numbering something else) you can define for them new styles and have a new look&feel for them in your webpage (you can use also in CSS inheritance, as Java!).

I will follow reading this book. You can download it easily from emule. I'm also reading a book called "PHP5 and MYSQL Bible", from the same Editorial; Really good book, I will talk soon about PHP, when I finish reading it and I learn enough PHP.

Ohhh, I was at point to forget it, I am writing this post entirely in HTML language, not using the editor as I made :D

Some screens of my ArchLinux with KDEmod

2008-06-07T11:43:00.012+02:00

I put there some screenshots I have made in ArchLinux with KDEmod, for people feels curiosity about this distribution and how is his look&feel. Enjoy them, I will make some explanations in every screenshot:

Here we have my Desktop clear. From top left corner to top right corner:

Kmenu, Home, Show Desktop, an applet for docking apps for fast accessing, Desktop switcher, Taskbar, a CPU/Memory/Swap monitor, and opened apps, clock and close session/shutdown button. Preety, right? :D

Also we can see the links in the desktop. Don't you like the icon Style? :D

Here, the same Desktop with Konqueror opened and Yakuake dropped down. Yakuake is a very beautiful Console for me, and look at konqueror: windows colors fit with background without any problems, and the icon theme Tango is the most beautiful icon theme I've ever seen.

Well, this is my Desktop, and also, the default theme of ArchLinux's KDEmod. Try it!!! You will not be disappointed with him!

I hope you'll try it and you will email me saying you've successfully installed it :D

Building a Moodle module

2008-06-06T09:10:00.007+02:00

Today I'm reading how I can build a Moodle module in a Wiki Page of Moodle. Along all day, I will edit this post with some comments and conclusions about what I have read.

Edit at 12:13

This morning I have been preparing the environment for begin to develop Moodle as soon as possible.

My favorite IDE for programming is eclipse (well, I now it seems a Switzerland knife xD, but it's very useful and runs perfectly on my Arch and it is easily pluggable), so I was looking about how I can prepare a web environment in eclipse.

Looking for on the Moodle Wiki I have found a concrete page explains perfectly what I have to do to work with eclipse for developing Moodle: Wiki page on Moodle site for Eclipse.

Now, following the previous instructions, my Eclipse is now ready to use (it was a quite hard but finally I have got it).

Also, for this afternoon, I have downloaded a template for programming modules for Moodle. This is the link I have followed to read about module development and download the module template: Link.

Señores de RENFE: Han perdido 1 cliente de AVE

2008-06-05T18:55:00.012+02:00

Cada dos por tres, tengo que ir a Madrid (por asuntos que no vienen al cuento). Como joven y estudiante que soy, no trabajo, no tengo ingresos y no puedo permitirme grandes lujos por ello.

Antes ir a Madrid, con Altaria, tardaba 4-5 horas, al precio de 55 € con tarifa web (un 60% de descuento respecto al precio original). Iba a la página web de RENFE, realizaba allí la compra, me molestaba en buscar la tarifa web puesto que no ponían visiblemente qué tarifas ni ofertas habían para un tren concreto (porque el que algo quiere algo le cuesta), y yo, sin mucha dificultad, obtenía mi billete tarifa web al precio antes mencionado. Hasta aquí guay, yo era feliz.

Ahora, con la entrada del AVE y el cambio de página web, me resulta imposible poder viajar a Madrid como joven:

Ahora en la página web muestran visiblemente, para todos los trenes, qué ofertas son las que quedan (Estrella, Web...), con lo cual la gente que no deseaba esforzarse a buscar la oferta ahora encuentra tarifa web con muchísima facilidad, y vuelan, y cuando quieres darte cuenta, no tienes tarifa web en las fechas que a ti te gustaría.
Los precios... SE HAN DUPLICADO! Un viaje en Altaria me costaba 55€ con 60% de descuento y 4 horas de viaje. En AVE, 3.5 horas de viaje hasta Madrid (algunos 2.5 pero pocos), con 60% de descuento de la tarifa web (si es que tienes muchísima suerte de haberla encontrado por lo antes mencionado), 96€ ir y volver de Madrid!!!!!!!! Ustedes, despiadados señores de RENFE, se piensan que somos tontos? Creen que a mi, media hora de mi vida en tren cuesta 96-55 = 41€??? Y eso con tarifa web!! Porque sin ella, la diferencia absoluta se dispara. Perdonen que se lo diga con estas formas, pero ustedes se pinchan.

Siempre decían: “Ohhh el AVE, es el futuro!!”, qué prisas por tener AVE ehhh? Cuando pensaba en AVE, creía que iban a mantener algunos Altarias, o almenos el tren Estrella hacia Madrid, que seria lo más lógico y lo mejor para los jóvenes. Ahora, la única forma de poder viajar en tren hasta Madrid es con AVE, ya no hay ni Altarias/Alvias ni Estrella. Tienes que pagar un ojo de la cara por el AVE.

Cuando muestran fotos del AVE, en las noticias ponen reportajes del AVE, etc... Siempre, lo único que se ven sentados como clientes son tipos trajeados con corbatas... EJECUTIVOS!!! Ustedes se piensan que nosotros tenemos los sueldazos de esa gente? Porque me temo que a un chaval como yo de 20 años y estudiante no lo habrán todavía fotografiado en el AVE a menos que le paguen el viaje sus papis.

Así pues, me veo obligado a tener que renunciar a ustedes y sus servicios de Larga Distancia y a tomar otras alternativas como el bus. Son 8 horas de viaje hasta Madrid (no las 2 y media del AVE ni las 4-5 del Alvia), pero cuestan 48€, y eso me lo puedo permitir. No comprendo porque han tenido que quitar de forma tan drástica esos trenes que en un pasado me iban tan bien y abusar de su propio monopolio.

Espero que con este escrito mi profunda desolación, decepción y descontento con ustedes haya quedado patente, y haberles dejado totalmente claro que han perdido a un cliente potencial de AVE.

Atentamente,

David, usuario de RENFE como miles de españoles

The birth of a Project: My PFC

2008-06-02T23:27:00.004+02:00

I am grateful to announce I begin the Final Career Project Today, 2th Jun 2008. I've gone to meet my project's Teacher, Marc Alier, for agree the last things, offer to me the way I want to follow for my project, and getting an idea about what I must do in this project. I chose to be a Moodle developer. He also offered me to participate in mobile phone projects. Moodle is a great e-learning and free software project. The whole free software world is really interesting. An opportunity like this is hardly ever offered to all people. Maybe the first part of the project is the easiest. I have the whole month of Jun to learn some required acknowledge:

I have to look in the Moodle wiki and learn how I can develop a module for Moodle and integrate it to the moodle platform (I have done that before in a PHP-Nuke, I hope it will not be harder...)
Having a blog to use it as a logbook to write my experiences and changes. I will use this blog for that task.
Installing Firebug, a Mozilla Firefox extension used for debugging web.
Managing Subversion (when I did ADA in the university, Analysis and Design of Algorithms, I learned to use it).
And the most huge part, learning the development web languages: PHP, HTML, Javascript, CSS, XHTML and XML. For a programmer like me, it would not be a really difficult task, but it requires some time, especially learning and understanding their syntax.

Jordi Piguillem, and official Moodle developer, will be "my master". I will begin soon to learn all this tasks. I have installed Firebug and next step will be reading the moodle Wiki (I have moodle installed in my machine as localhost). Ohhh, I also asked for making the whole project (memory and documentation in English). I can :D, a great opportunity to learn a lot. It promises to be a really exciting project. Let's see it!

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

2008-05-30T19:28:00.003+02:00

I put here an e-book with GNU rights, called "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". Recommended reading for all this people that love computer world and want to learn more about GNU world. I am reading it now, it seems interesting :)

The Cathedral and the Bazaar - Upload a doc

Leading, Emotional Intelligence and Team Management

2008-05-30T12:01:00.005+02:00

Here I put the powerpoint our GSI group did when we did the presentation about Leading, Emotional Intelligence and Team management.

I hope it will be useful to somebody.

| View | Upload your own

Making presentations is not easy

2008-05-28T16:42:00.006+02:00

I put there a really interesting powerpoint about making presentations. It shows what is a presentation and what is not a presentation. Making presentation requires a good ability and experience, the main objective of them is maintain your public waken up and explain your theme as explicit and understandable as possible, to help your ideas to arrive to you public.

| View | Upload your own

Extracted from Morguapu

The Information Systems

2008-05-24T18:36:00.008+02:00

Well, in this society, information is the base of advance. Without communication, humans couldn't establish basic relationships to follow and get an objective (we are not alone in this world, you know?).

In this days, we have a lot of media communication: Television, radio, Internet, Messenger, mobile phones... Specially I want to remark internet. Internet allow everyone to see the world through a computer o something that can have Internet connection (who knows if in the future even a sandwich can have Internet...).

I will focus on enterprise (not necessary) projects. Internet has become a great media to coordinate and administrate teams. The well-known web 2.0 is a very useful utility to achieve it. Wikis, Forums, Blogs... They make this task easier. So my post is for convince people to use them.

I will begin with Blog: If you don't have lot of time to expend, maybe it will be boring writing a blog (many people take blog as a personal journal. Yes, it is, but not at force). Blogs are useful to diffuse information and having a corner in Internet for you, your feelings, your ideals... All you want!

There are many types of blogs, blogs for all people: Sports, Communication, Software Development, Tutorials made by people... In general as I said, for introduce information to the world, making this info being commented by users.

Look at this video:

As soon as I begin the Moodle Development project, I will have a kind of "logbook" in this blog, a memory for remember TO-DO things, for example, or simply, "what I did in any day?" Organitzation... Planification... etc.

Let's talk about forums. Forum are amazing, impressive, are a great way for transmit information: Usually, forums are located in a web community. They are used mostly for discussing: A user post a thread about something, and the rest of users comment the thread making posts. The information can be, from technical discussing about computers (for example), or making a date with your friends (or simply, foro-chat xD).

In forums of computers usually there are tutorials or manuals, and often posts question-answer (A user has a problem with his computer, and users try to resolve it). Also there are threads for discussing about news (for example, for commenting new software that has been released).

In few words, forums typically are like a lot of persons sit close, and talking about a theme, but online, making large distances closer.

Let's talk about wikis. Wikis are fantastic. Wikipedia is the media used for having information, where that information can be added/modified by users. A person writes an article about NASA, for example, and another user can edit that article to improve it. It's really easy to maintain a wiki.

They are also used for organization. Teammates can make a list of tasks achieved, and TODO tasks. A concrete user can edit the page and add to the achieved list a task that was on the "TODO" tasks, because he has done it.

In these times, the technological world is being improved in a exponential way thanks to the Information Systems and the Society of Information. I thank to them because they make the world more perfect.

How to become a forum master?

2008-02-04T00:15:00.021+01:00

Who knows me, knows that one of my "multiple" hobbies is walking through lots of forums. Is a pretty way for talking about themes that we are interested, be entertained discussing themes, etc...

Usually a person choose a forum about themes he is interested (computer, video games, biology... there are forums for all themes that you can imagine) and in that forums people talk, ask questions...

However, forums are always plagued of kids who don't know how they must behavior. If you are reading this, means that your are not a bad manner, so I will give you some councils for being in a forum in conditions and helping to it:

To someone like me, their eyes are hurt because lots of users o "monsters" that round forums make an innumerable number of spelling mistakes (not because they are fools, because they are extremely lazy), or they haven't bothered to search on google their questions before, or simply, they are bored and they insult to beauty.

Forum users are humans, often, without lot of time. We want to help and answer as many questions as it's possible, but for that, we need the help of those who make questions. Try to make interesting questions, try to win a "good answer", with a "good question". This can be achieved in the following way:

Put an avatar respecting the forum rules and, if there aren't, the forum tables, and if you want, a sign that respects the regulatory size of forum. This will make the other users read your posts better, they will treat you as a serious and responsible person and not a bad guy. Also, you will gain some aesthetic touch on your posts and in the forum.
Put formal titles on your posts, readable, consistent, without spelling mistakes and explicits. The space for putting a title is limited, so don't waste it putting titles such us:

"HELP PLEASE! Network don't work!", save the HELP PLEASE (it's no needed that you express you anxiety and try to impress us with your problems). Leverage to put something explicit, clarifier and formal like "Problems with modem/Router/LAN/Wireless" (depending on your problem). Moreover, intuitively, the expert in that kind of problem will enter immediately and will answer you probably if you have exposed correctly your problem.

Expose your post body clearly, comprehensively and concrete (not ambiguous) and pretty as far as possible. Let's go to the aesthetic part of post:
Don't make posts all in uppercase! It makes sense of you are shouting. I.E: "MY MOTHERBOARD HAS BEEN SHORT CIRCUITED AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO REPAIR IT".
Write in a consistent form and without mistakes, make yourself understandable. I.E: "Plz, jelp, how I can put likid refrigerexon in mi old compute?" This kind of posts I tend to ignore them at all, I mustn't waste my time translating information.
Write in paragraphs, not in bricks! You make an easier reading and make a favor to our eyes and also you will make easier to answer by parts.
Write in a structural form if it's necessary or if you make very long posts. Use tabulations (or spaces if you can't tabulate).
Remark as much as you can keywords in the text. Use bold font, underlined font or italic font. This will make easier to all your readers the receiving of key ideas, will beautify your posts, and also you can get easier a more positive answer, and those who answer you will be grateful to do it.

Let's go to the content of the post:

Before making questions, search on google, wikipedia... what you are looking for. This will teach you to use all these resources, it is not hard. If you don't do it, you can get an answer like "STFW" (Search the fucking web).
Chose the subforum with careful. Put your question in the corresponding forum. A question about network in "Network Forum", for example.
Be clear, brief and concise. Center your post in your problem.
Forum users apreciate a middle language. Not extremely vulgar (we don't want to treat you as a fool), and not extremely formal (we want to understand you). Use an standard language. However, we apreciate also our technical computer language.
Describe the environment where the problem appears (hardware, OS, app, etc...)
Describe the steps you do (or you did) and try to resolve the problem before asking something.
Courtesy never hurts, even sometimes helps. A "Greetings" or a "Thanks" at the end of your post can be nice for your readers.
Never ask for answering you via mail.

In general, it must remain demonstrated that at least you strive in writing your post and you have worked in your question and you can't answer it by yourself. Better exposed is your question, earlier and better answered will be it.

Don't expect ALWAYS an answer to all you ask for. Don't be insistent, if nobody answer you is, because no one knows it, or because people ignores you because you have not respected the above mentioned rules.

Let's go to the answers that must make a forum user:

If you don't know the solution and you don't have a solution proposal for the theme, don't answer it. Only you will be treat as a fool and demonstrate that you're silly.
Answers like "LOL, hahaha, xDDD, rofl..." alone, can be saved in your fingers ;)
Direct insults are not allowed in our philosophy. We are humans, and if logic that we get angry in a concrete moment. For these cases, without arriving to lose the manners, sarcasm an irony are your allies.
Be clear on your answers, don't be ambiguous.
When you are answered, if they don't fit in your needs, make more clarifications, trying to guide better the users about your problem, explain the process you are doing, and always report changes or evolution in your problem.

If you follow these rules, probably you will get some friends to laugh, be happy and discuss.

I hope this will help somebody to enter in a forum community.

Recommended Linux Program List for an undefeteable Desktop

2008-02-03T20:38:00.004+01:00

I put there a list of programs (with their use) for having a fast Desktop, and at the same time, this programs offer the maximum benefits as possible:

Desktop Environment: XFCE4
Web Navigator: Firefox
Instantant Messaging: Pidgin (multiprotocol), Emesene (for MSN), Skype (VoIP, for talk with voice)
Music: There are some alternatives. In my desktop XFCE I use quodlibet. You can try also Exaile (or amarok if you want to have some QT apps).
Video: VLC or Kaffeine if you use KDE libraries.
Burning software: Here is, or K3b, or K3b (xD) any other gtk app will be much worst.
Imaging: GIMP (is there any other that can offer the same that it can? Krita doesn't like to me).
Image Viewer: You can choose between Gthumb (GTK), GQview (very light) or Gwenview (KDE).
PDF Viewer: You can use Evince or KPDF (for KDE). Please, never user Acroread, is a resource sucker!
Office suite: Openoffice (I am not convinced by koffice, OOO is better).
Text Editor: I use gVim because I am used to use it, but if you need something more user-friendly, kate or gedit are not bad.
Develop Environment: I use Eclipse.

Well, I hope that list will be useful for anyone that cannot be decided about what programs he must install in his Linux.

Dibujos de los 80's-90's

2008-02-03T01:00:00.003+01:00

Hola buenas,

hacía tiempo que no escribía en el blog. La verdad es que la falta de tiempo y de ganas y la pereza hacían que no escribiera nada. Pero hoy he encontrado un vídeo que me ha hecho entrar una nostalgia tremenda:

Jopé... qué fueron de todos todos aquellos dibujos que nos hicieron crecer llenos de ilusión y fantasías cuando éramos pequeños? Que ha sido del calor y la simpatía que desprendían todos aquellos dibujos hechos a mano y trabajados?

Ahora todos los dibujos que hacen están hechos por ordenador y con un argumento que a menudo dejan muchísimo que desear y no enganchan, ni con una moraleja/entretenimiento tan profundos como los que infudían los dibujos de antaño. No sé vosotros, pero a mi me parecen dibujos fríos y sin sentimientos, hechos simplemente para llenar horas de televisión las cuales no saben qué poner...

Determinada tecnología, más que ayudar, convierte en vagas a las personas, y hacen que las empresas estas de dibujos creen animaciones y series de forma sistemática sin importar la calidad del resultado.

Cual es el legado que dejaremos a la infancia de nuestros hijos? Cual es el precio que tendremos que pagar por la tecnología?

LOOK AT ME!

2007-12-16T19:57:00.001+01:00

Mírame...
y no dejes de clavar tus ojos en los míos mientras te miro
Mírame...
y procura que no se despiste tu mirada de mis labios al hablarte
Mírame...
y no esquives tu mirar cuando tengas mi piel desnuda delante para que la ames,
desnuda en frente para que me ames...
No pares nunca de mirarme, de acercarte tanto a mí que sea capaz de ver tras la negrura de tus pupilas
Por favor, jamás dejes de mirarme como sólo tú haces.
Porque en la mirada está la claridad de las palabras no dichas, de las mentiras malditas, de los ocultos secretos...
Quiero tu mirar, porque es una forma de tenerte plenamente sin que te enteres de que eres mío, sin percatarte de que soy capaz de leerte con tan solo mirarte.
Mírame...así como dándome tu permiso para tal lectura, así como aceptando ser transparente por siempre para mí y demostrándomelo de ese modo...
...David...quiéreme...mírame!!

La mujer de seda

2007-09-03T12:38:00.001+02:00

Bueno, hoy me encontraba en cierto modo... inspirado para poder volver a mis viejos tiempos de poeta, y bueno, quería dedicarle una poesía a una persona muy especial. Espero que te guste, Helena :D

LA MUJER DE SEDA

Justo en el momento
cuando el agobio y la aflicción
reinaban en mi corazón,
apareciste montada al son del viento,
virtuosa y majestuosa,
sobre tu caballo blanco,
vigoroso, pero manso,
dejando detrás de ti la estela de una melena hermosa.

Desde el abismo tú me recogiste
alargando tu mano.
Que extraño tactó noté...
Y una vez en pie
descubrí que no eras un ser humano,
que sorpresa la mía
cuando vi que no eras de piel.

Seda, el tejido más valioso.
Tu mano rozaba en mi piel
y me hacías estremecer,
pero al mismo tiempo descubría
un nuevo mundo de sensaciones;
cómo es posible regenerar la vida
y crear renovada energía?

Entonces, me llevaste a tu palacio
sobre tu caballo, cabalgando despacio
para aprovechar al máximo ese momento de unión
en la que tu y yo nos uníamos a la tierra en comunión.

Pero ay de mí,
me tumbé y me dormí...
pero que sorpresa la mía cuando desperté:
No era dueño de un sueño.

Unas vacaciones... distintas

2007-08-22T22:46:00.001+02:00

Bueno, aquí vamos de nuevo con la superinteresante vida de...

SÍ, LO HABÉIS ADIVINADO!!! DAVID!!! cómo lo sabíais? xDD

Bueno, al fin ya mi vida ha tomado un rumbo mejor dirigido, y con un color más vivo. He encontrado al que considero el amor de mi vida. La mujer más hermosa e inteligente, simpática y divertida que jamás haya podido conocer es ahora la persona con la que voy cabalgando en ese largo sendero cuyo horizonte no se puede divisar, pero toda tu espalda es visible.

Desafortunadamente, la pega es que ella vive un pelín lejos de mi. La posibilidad que se plantea para estas situaciones es de poder vernos en persona una o dos veces al mes durante unos cuantos días. Somos jóvenes y eso de irse a vivir juntos es todavía una posibilidad remota. Sólamente cuando estoy sin ella, su voz y alguna fotito es lo que más feliz me hace.

La gente dice que las relaciones a distancia son muuuuy díficiles. Me río de ellos. Son difíciles si la persona que a la que tienes que guardar fidelidad es una persona normal y corriente de estas que te puedes encontrar bajando a la calle o en una disco. Porque todo ello induce a pensar: coño, para que complicarme la vida con alguien que vive lejos de mi, que no podré ver a menudo, y tengo lo mismo a dos pasos y de paso, poder echar habitualmente algun casquete, mientras que con la otra si se da la oportunidad, será eventualmente...

Cuando se encuentra una especie rara en peligro de extinción, los organismos gubernamentales ponen todos sus esfuerzos en proteger y preservar esa especie. Puedo sentirme afortunado de poder gozar de una de esas especies en peligro de extinción. Pienso poner todos mis esfuerzos y mi ímpetu en poder seguir gozando de ella siempre. Es tan fuerte el lazo que me une a ella... Y realmente no se sufre tanto... todo depende del ojo de cómo te lo mires y de lo flojo que vayas de pantalones.

Este blog se convertirá y será escrito por los dos... o al menos esa es mi intención ^^, poder tener una especie de "diario" entre los dos, que cuando seamos mayores, podamos releer una y otra vez y recordar estos momentos para que nunca se olviden. Creo que cuando sea anciano y tengo la oportunidad de leer todo esto, creo que me pondré a llorar. Joe, si sólo de pensar el momento me estoy poniendo a llorar yo mismo ahora, que ñoño soy a veces.

En fin, desafortunadamente, la expresión "te quiero" no dispone de demasiados sinónimos en la lengua española, con lo cual a veces te puedes llegar a volver repetitivo cuando expreso continuadamente lo que siento por ella. Pero joder, es que no hay otra :S, y como no me ponga a escribirle un poema de los míos...

Ya me vendrá la inspiración...

Lo que es el amourrrr

2007-08-03T12:46:00.001+02:00

Una diosa, un tesoro, un arrecife de coral, una sirena, un eclipse, una estrella fugaz que deseo que pase por delante mío todos los días... Es la descripción más corta que podría hacer acerca de una persona causante de tanta felicidad...

Nunca. Nunca he sentido algo tan fuerte por nadie ni por nada. Es un nexo, un enlace no entre dos personas, sino entre dos almas. Por primera vez en mi vida he podido probar el auténtico sabor del amor correspondido.

En fin, no tengo muchas ganas de palabrería. Ahora mismo, mi silencio será bastante explícito. Sólo espero el momento de poder besarla con ternura... mirarla a los ojos... y decirle lo mucho que la amo...

La suerte está echada

2007-07-31T10:00:00.001+02:00

Como diría el de Bricomanía: HOLA AMIGOS! hoy vamos a explicaros cómo enamorarse de alguien que está a muchos kilómetros de distancia!

En fin, ahora ya sí que no me conozco. Que poco normal me resulta todo lo que está ocurriendo en estos últimos días. Me paso el día en el MSN, esperando a que ella esté... Y no estoy tenso, sino tranquilo, sereno... Ya dije que suelo ser imperturbable.

La vida no se mide por las veces que respiras, sinó por los momentos que te dejan sin aliento... Fuere quien fuere el que escribiera esa frase, no dijo ninguna mentira piadosa. Realmente, tantos momentos sin aliento como los que he tenido ahora, y encima seguidos, bien poquitos... Estoy flipando.

Anteayer me preguntaba a mi mismo si me estaba enamorando... hoy es algo fijo. Ahora sé a ciencia cierta que hay alguien que me importa de verdad, alguien que me preocupa, alguien por quien, instintivamente, debo luchar. Le dije que no me podía enamorar por la red... creo que le tendría que haber añadido que no me podía enamorar por la red de un físico :P

Ayer le dije como me sentía. Le mostré lo que era un auténtico ataque de "sinceritis aguda". No sé que tal cuerpo le habrá quedado, pero almenos yo me quedé bien descansado.

En fin, ya sólo me queda esperar... y saber si me da la mano y empezamos a recorrer juntos un camino del cual todavía no distingo el final, y espero no tener distinguirlo nunca. Demasiado bonito resultan las vistas que se divisan desde el senderito como para que termine el viaje ^_^.

Sólo una vez más... que mañana le vuelva a decir lo que siento...

Es algo... extraño, pero agradable

2007-07-29T23:23:00.001+02:00

Hola a todos, bueno hace tiempo que no escribía por aquí (la verdad es que no tenía motivos para hacerlo, la inspiración no me ha estado acompañando últimamente), peeero, algún día tenía que volver, no?

Bueno, ya estoy en casa, recién venidito de la Campus Party. Realmente echaré de menos todo aquello, pero todavía echaré más de menos a Valencia. Es una ciudad preciosa, la ciudad de las artes es algo espectacular, tremendo. SIN PALABRAS! Gracias, Son Gohan, por haberme hecho de guía. Eres la polla :D

Bueno, la campus también me ha servido para alejarme del pesado núcleo familiar: no tener que aguantar al niñato de mi hermano, al pesado de mi padre y a la protectora de mi madre (desde aquí un besazo, que aunque diga esto de ellos, los quiero con locura) y poder ser autosuficiente me han hecho no sólo madurar mucho y realmente ponerme a prueba a mi mismo, sino para poder disponer de más tiempo para apreciar (todavía más, si me apuras) todas aquellas cosas que realmente me importan. (Bueno, no lo digo por lo de dormir, eso de dormir sin colchoneta en un suelo duro es una putada xDDD, como echaba de menos mi cama xDDD).

Bueno, realmente, yo he ido a la campus porque me salia barato poder dormir y todo eso, y tener algún lugar donde caerme muerto, no podía ir a patear Valencia las 24 horas, la fuerza humana no es infinita :D.

Han habido tardes que prometían ser de aburrimiento, delante del PC, viciando. Pero ha habido alguien que ha evitado que esas tardes fueran así. No veas que pedazo de charlas nos hemos estado pegando, por dios. Algo impresionante.

Realmente cada día te enteras de que hay formas de vida inteligentes en el universo!!! (No miento, es verdad, las hay!). Pues he descubierto que en un lugar de Madrid, se esconde una muchacha, una muchacha extraña...

Es una mujer cuyo nombre quiero poder recordar siempre. Goza de una inteligencia formidable, un don de palabra fantástico, una forma de ver la vida original e independiente, forjada por su propia experiencia y sin depender de nada, libre. Y además es universitaria!! (eso es para que después se me vuelva más exigente cuando empiece a pedirme cosas xD).

No me canso nunca de hablar con ella. Renuncio incluso a un entrecot a la pimienta para poder estar el máximo rato con ella (debo de estar volviéndome loco, renunciar a mi plato favorito después de pasarme una semana entera a pan y agua? xDDD). Encuentro un parecido a mi en cuanto a carácter tan abismal... Me siento muy identificado con ella. Pero por supuesto, tiene su toque y sus diferencias, sus criterios, sus convicciones... en algún punto podemos coincidir, pero no creo que igualar.

Ayer me soltó algo que me dejó... perplejo, paralizado. Me abrió de par en par las puertas de su corazón, aunque fuera con algo de miedo, porque se lo noté... Pero si me conoceis, tenéis que saber que a mi quien me abre la puerta de su casa 1 vez, yo le abro la mia una infinidad. Y realmente lo ha conseguido. Hoy le he estado explicando cosas y haciendo comentarios que no me había atrevido nunca a contarle ni a decirle con el mismo detalle ni a la propia Evelyn (quizás falta de tiempo, no sé...)

Y jamás me había sincerado tanto con nadie... y mira que soy reservado!!!!, pero hablo con ella con una transparencia, un ímpetu, unas ganas... Y no me corto de nada, oye! Y lo mejor de todo es que no parece molestarle nada de lo que digo, sino al contrario. Y si alguna vez lo hace, me lo dice directamente, sin titubeos.

Le dije que yo me conocía del todo a mi mismo, o al menos, casi al 100%, o almenos eso creo, o creía... ¿A que la habré engañado? Davigochi, me parece que vamos a tener que hacer jornada de flagelación por mentiras... xDDD

Está sacando de mi una parte que quizás desconocía, o si afloraba, no lo hacía tan seguido. Los ataques de "sinceritis aguda" (no porque sea un mentiroso ni nada por el estilo, sinó por tirarle todo lo que pienso, por privado que me parezca) no son usuales en mí. Normalmente suelo hablar menos de lo que callo. Quizás es por esa razón que en la campus party me he llegado a pasar más de 5 horas de charla con ella sin descanso. Me darán alguna indemnización monetaria por batir records guiness?

Creo que me estoy... enamo-ké? Joe, si me he levantado pensando en lo mismo, y me voy a acostar pensando en lo mismo XD. Sé que requiero tiempo para que eso sea una verdad, y quizás alguna otra cosa, pero vaya si va tirando por el senderito, vaya...

No se si leerá este blog ni si nunca leerá este escrito. No le pienso comentar la existencia de este párrafo pero bueno... esto es ya como mi diario personal y donde me suelto... Es libre de leer quien quiera así que... adelante, pasen y vean!

Tendré muchos ratos de silencio absoluto con ella, pero no será un silencio vacío.

Me pregunto si algún día podré escribir en este blog por los dos... Y poder soñar algo real a la vez que escribo... Y porqué no convertir este blog en el blog de los dos? En fin, sólo el tiempo lo dirá...

Only one more time...

Perdóname

2007-06-27T00:25:00.002+02:00

Bueno... Hay una persona de este foro a quién debo disculparme por un PM que le mandé. Quiero que sepa que me sabe muy mal, y por esa razón, he querido compensarle invirtiendo una parte de mi tiempo en escribirle un soneto. Quien se sienta identificado allá él/la. Mi alma estará en paz :)

Perdóname

Cuando la tristeza empaña el espejo del alma
el entorno que me rodea pierde la calma.
Sientes una mancha negra
más pesada que una piedra.

Me arrepiento de mi osadía,
mi corazón se sentía vacío
tus sentimientos intenté comprender
pero me equivoqué sin querer.

No permitas que por ti una lagrima derroche
en la tranquilidad de esta negra noche
serena y estrellada.

Por tu confianza sagrada
deseo una amistad regalarte,
aunque no sé si podrás perdonarme.

Amor Platónico

2007-06-13T12:38:00.001+02:00

Da gracia darse cuenta de muchas cosas a medida que pasa el tiempo. Saber que realmente amas a una persona cuando está lejos de ti es algo... que calificaría de raro.

Siempre has sido mi amor platónico. Desde que te conocí y vi como eras, supe que eras la persona que siempre había buscado y deseado: enérgica, tierna, cariñosa y especial. Dudo mucho que nunca tenga la oportunidad de conocer en este mundo a nadie como tú. Aunque no te vea muy a menudo, mi vida, siempre estoy pensando en ti, te recuerdo cerca y con mis manos siempre trato de recordar el tacto de tu piel.

Amas a otra persona, tienes sueños distintos de los míos y eso ha hecho de ti un amor imposible, pero siempre he deseado ser la persona que quisiera compartir toda la vida contigo, y seguirte hasta el fin del mundo. Pero cuando realmente notas que estás enamorado de alguien, sólamente te preocupas por su felicidad. Deseas que esa persona sea feliz de por vida de la forma que sea, tanto te da si ella te ama o no (bueno, si te ama mejor que mejor, no? :P)

Yo lo único que deseo, y sólo le pido eso como mínimo a la vida, que siempre sonría. Quiero que todas las personas a las que amo puedan sonreir de verdad, para que yo tambien pueda sonreir. Y poder sentir su voz cada 2 por 3 y realzar mi espíritu.

Sólo hay una cosa que no cambiará. Aunque sé que nunca podremos estar juntos, que sepas que eres la persona a la que más he querido en este mundo junto a mi madre.

Cuando tengo la mirada perdida y te recuerdo, siempre logras esbozarme una sonrisa. Mi Venus...

SandBox

2007-06-09T18:30:00.001+02:00

These are only tests. I'm practising HTML and CSS languages. ROFL

Caca de vaca
Sucker

Caca de vaca
Sucker

Here goes the hidden content.

El valor del tiempo

2007-03-15T11:43:00.003+01:00

Bueno, cada día, más y más, me doy cuenta de lo valiosísimo que llega a ser este elemento, el tiempo. A menudo pasa sin que nos enteremos, y cuando quieres darte cuenta, ya es demasiado tarde para poder actuar.

Por esa razón, por mi parte se ha merecido que le escriba una poesía, recordando que hay que saber aprovechar sus visitas y sacarle el máximo partido, porque una vez que pasa, ya no vuelve.

TEMPUS FUGIT

Marca un camino del cual no te puedes apartar.
Un camino donde atrás puedes mirar,
pero nunca regresar.
Un camino donde adelante puedes avanzar,
pero nunca contemplar.

Médico de la humanidad,
es capaz de sanar las heridas más profundas
y desechar las penas más inmundas,
con calma y tranquilidad.

Silencioso y misterioso,
se pasea por las laderas
de este mundo hermoso.
Invisible e inmortal,
sólo él y su voluntad
dictaran el final.

Se le quiere esclavizar
pero jamás lo podrán lograr;
sólo de su presencia se puede gozar.
Los sabios de esta tierra
quieren verle constantemente
antes de que sus ojos se cierran.

Nunca dejes que se marche
sin que tu huella en este mundo marques.

Recuerdo del ángel celeste

2007-03-15T11:42:00.003+01:00

De un rayo de luz esperanzador
surgió un ángel celeste,
sanando a su alrededor la tierra agreste
me salvó con la fuerza del amor.

Enérgica y cariñosa,
tierna y mimosa,
lograbas en mi una sonrisa esbozar
y mis ánimos alzar.

En tu cara se posaban mis dedos
con delicadeza y suavidad.
De esta forma se esfumaban mis miedos
y me inspiraban tranquilidad.

¿Recuerdas aquel anochecer de verano
caminando por la playa
bajo una, hermosa donde las haya,
luna llena, junto la melodía de un piano?

Mi dulce ángel de la felicidad,
que a tu lado ha habido mucha tristeza
que has transformado en fuerza
con el poder de la serenidad.

Besos y arrumacos
los recuerdo a menudo y a ratos.
Con el blando tacto el de tu mano
me daba cuenta de que era un afortunado.

Pero el ángel celeste se fue
y mi vida la misma no volvió a ser.
Que allá donde estés
seas feliz y conserves tu sonrisa
para que yo la vuelva a ver.

Ahora cierro los ojos por las noches,
y en mi mismo me adentro.
Y aunque me moleste el ruido de los coches
aguardaré el esperado reencuentro.

Un espejismo, ¿quizás? Las distancias separan, pero siempre prevalecerá el recuerdo y la esperanza.

Elegía bajo la luz de la luna

2007-03-15T11:41:00.004+01:00

Muy a menudo, por las noches, pues cuando me siento inspirado escribo poesías descargando todos mis sentimientos en ellas para sentirme más ligero por mi mismo, puesto que no siempre que lo deseas tienes a alguien que te escuche y comparta contigo un poco de calor humano.

Cerrar los ojos durante 5 minutos, volverlos a abrir rápidamente y desde tu ventana contemplar las tonalidades que cogen los objetos cuando cae el anochecer... La verdad es que es algo que me causa cierto impacto y misterio, y que queréis que os diga... a mi la noche me cambia severamente el estado de ánimo. Será influencia de la luna tal y como han teorizado científicos?

En fin... Deseo compartir uno de mis textos y que se lo lea quien desee. Espero que les guste. Fue hecha un día en que me sentía un poco "chof" y me salían palabras.

Elegía bajo la luz de la luna

Al caer el anochecer
un silencioso manto oscuro
me envuelve y se adueña de mi cuerpo,
cambiando dentro mío toda una forma de ser.

Recuerdos de juventud
que a sus anchas se pasean
por mis vagos pensamientos,
repletos de vivencias de la era pasada:
Nostalgia.

Pena por lo vivido,
carencia afectiva,
alma errante vagando,
vagando por un mundo
esperando a ser liberada
encontrando a su propio yo,
su alma gemela: Melancolía.

Tratando de encontrar una posible respuesta,
miro al firmamento:
ser feliz, ser fuerte,
mirar hacia delante,
el presente es el pasado,
y el futuro es el presente que nos espera:
Reflexión.

Luna mía,
reina de las mareas,
el único resplandor
que ilumina mi corazón:
Esperanza.

Me asomo a la ventana,
immóbil miro fuera y te veo.
veo como peinas tu cabello
brillante, mate, liso, fino,
tus labios, carnosos y dulces,
tus ojos, cristalinos y puros
un misterioso fervor crece en mí:
Amor y Romanticismo.

Verano, ya estás aquí?
Portadora de vida y calor,
pero, qué es tu calor
al lado del calor humano,
cargado de sentimientos, voluntad y pasión?:
Cariño.

Me doy la vuelta,
pierdo totalmente el control;
el manto oscuro me ha envuelto por completo,
haciendome caer en un mundo fantástico,
donde los sueños son una realidad.