Gunnar Wolf

I was invited to give a talk at "Universidad del Mayab", a subsidiary of Universidad Anáhuac. I saw several posters such as this one. It's hard not to freak out...

A colleague of mine at Facultad de Ingeniería pointed me to a note published in the Faculty's gazette about a short cycle of talks we had on April 4th, trying to get life and interest back in the once-active LIDSOL (Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Software Libre, Free Software Research and Development Laboratory), which nowadays lies mostly dormant.

Good thing the official communication channels got notice of this! Only I am not sure if they can properly produce Spanish (as this feels more like an English redaction). Quoting only the first lines of the paragraph that referes to me:

La última conferencia fue presentada por Gunnar Wolf, que aunque su nombre nos hiciera pensar en una nacionalidad europea, él es nacido en tierras mexicanas pero con descendencias húngaras, austriacas y polacas.

Which translates to:

The last talk was presented by Gunnar Wolf, that although he has a name that makes us think about an European nationality, he was born in Mexican soil, but with Hungarian, Austriac and Polish descent.

As far as I can tell (and I am almost sure I know all of the story — At least on that regard), I have no descent yet. Not Hungarian, Austriac, Polish, nor of any nationality.

(nitpickers: Yes, similar words are often used. In Spanish, it would be correct to say de ascendencia húngara, austriaca y polaca, and in my attempt towards English translation, it would be of Hungarian, Austriac and Polish descent).

Six cats mish-mashed together as a single furry body? Must be that winter is coming!

Six cats mish-mashed together as a single furry body? Must be that winter is coming!

At Templo de Santo Domingo, Puebla. Photo by Octavio "Octagesimal".

At COSIT, Coatzacoalcos, 2011

Photo by El Pop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/el_pop/7940694142/in/set-72157631429617966

"Pulque": Traditional fermented drink, original from the central Mexican highlands.
What a better place can you find for a "pulquería" than... Just below an Alcoholics Anonymous center?

CURP: Clave Única del Registro Poblacional, or Unique Population Registry Code. This is a (hopefully) unique, 18 character long, string identifying each Mexican - I won't get into the technicalities, but serve yourselves.

By following such a convoluted scheme, the authorities should have ensured a biunivocal relation between each person and their CURP number. Well, at some point, due to a bureaucratical mishap completely outside my hands (my patron registered me with the wrong birth date, as you can see in the page at the bottom), I got two CURPs - And the procedure to fix it was far from trivial.

Last Sunday, I entered the Consulta CURP system to print a copy of the official document. Much to my surprise... It answered that I was not registered!

A couple of minutes later, I tried again, and succeeded. But I could not refrain from printing my Certificate of non-registration.

I guess their system follows a strong-but-stupid scheme such as:

begin {
  db = connect_to_database
  curp = find_curp_for_person(query)
  generate_document(curp)
} rescue {
  generate_non_reg_certificate(query)
}

So, right, if a user submits a query during the system maintenance window (after all, it was Sunday after 23:00), the system will fail to connect to the database (or whatever), raise an exception, trap it, and... Well, you no longer exist, thanks for playing!

Sometimes, very rarely, I am happy that the spam filters in my personal mail server are so far from perfect.

Many of us were amazed, some days ago, news broke that Amelia Earhart's plane was found in the Southwestern Pacific. The news is amazing and worthy in itself. But today, I got this mail, proof that Amelia lived through all those years: (all addresses obscured, of course)

Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 23:38:59 -0700
From: Amelia Earhart <some-mail@gmail.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: Hello
Reply-To: some-other-mail@live.com

Hello friend,

With due respect to humanity, i am compelled to write to you on a humanitarian ground, however, it has been my wish to execute in life.

Please, I am contacting you based on my desire to create a charitable fund in your country with this sum of EURO € 3.5 Million which I inherited from my late husband (Dr. Ahrens Earhart).

It is my desire to see that this money is invested in any organization of your choice in your country and distributed each year among the charity organizations, the house mother of the child, mosques, churches, schools, support for disadvantaged older men and women or in whatever way you intend helping the less privileged.

I took this decision because I was raised out of the house of mother and baby at the moment, i am admitted in a hospital in London were i am taking severe treatment to my cancer illness.

Please answer as soon as possible to confirm your agreement with this proposal, so I’ll give you all the necessary information that will enable you to have access to this funds my personal accountant will be aware of my arrangements with you.

Thank you for your attention and I hope to hear from you soon. Please contact me through my this email- some-other-mail@live.com the nurse helping me will attend to you i have been restricted from touching the computer due to my illness i will direct you through her she is a nice person.

Sincerely,
Ms. Amelia Earhart.

Translation: The consumption of alcoholic beverages inside the campus will be punished. Avoid it! Article 95 of the general UNAM statute.

So... What should be avoided? The message looks to me as calling for Article 95 to be reformed.

Translation: «Access forbidden to any kind of sellers to the market. Your goods will be taken away.»

So, the market is just for trading ideas?

Seen at the entrance to "Mercado de la Bola", col. Ajusco, Coyoacán, Mexico D.F.

If this is the advertisement for the garage sale, I cannot imagine the garage itself!

(seen at Totonacas and Netzahualcóyotl; col. Ajusco, Coyoacán, México)

I'm sorry, this would not make any sense if I translate it to English. It might not be well understandable in locales other than es_MX. But anyway — It shows most clients have a clear use case for Tehuacán Peñafiel.

Lets go eat some T.Bon (T-bone) and Ribay (rib eye)!

After the strong and unexpected cold and wet weather that has lasted around two weeks, my cats decided on the best startegy to maximize the sun reception on the first sunny afternoon