L'America: What About the Supreme Court?

Today, liberals are up in arms all across America: in two opinions, the Supreme Court of the United States has established that (most) corporations can disregard the law for religious reasons; it also found against mandating agency fees to unions by non-unionized members.

Really, liberals have been up in arms against the current Supreme Court for a while. President Obama denounced several Supreme Court opinions, in particular Citizens United (on campaign finance). Ever more ancient is probably the most famous ruling (outside the United States): Bush v. Gore, which handed the presidency of the country to George W. Bush.

Big Ones

It’s been the usual summer fare lately in San Diego. Storms in the South don’t quite make it up here, and there is nothing in the Northern hemisphere that creates enough of a stir to pass through the Channel Islands. We are left to fend for ourselves, making the best out of 2-foot waves.

Out of nowhere, a combo swell showed up. It wasn’t said to be much more than we’d had – instead of being 2-3 feet, it was rumored to be 2-4. That would give the waves a chance to have better shape. In particular, combo swells work really well on our long sandy shores, because they create beautiful (if unpredictable) peaks when waves converge before they break.

HOWTO: Redundant Data Backup in the Cloud for Linux

After the previous article explaining the principles behind this form of “safe” cloud backup, here a step-by-step tutorial on how to make it work. The software used and the commands issued are all for Ubuntu, but you should be able to translate them into any modern Linux variant. On the other hand, much of the infrastructure required works only on Linux.

1. Prerequisites

Aside from the obvious (a modern version of Linux), you will need a series of tools that don’t come installed standard. First the actual commands, then an explanation:

PRIMER: Redundant Data Backup in the Cloud for Linux

Here is my problem: when I travel, I want to have access to my most important documents (like my passport, or my drivers license, or the airline tickets, or a bunch of other things). I want to have access to those documents particularly if I lose my computer and the originals. Imagine I am in Fiji on a surf trip (I wish!) and my everything gets stolen while i conquer Cloudbreak. I come out, have nothing, and have nothing to prove that I once had something.

L'America: What's So Great About America?

When I moved to America, back in the ancient days, my friends tried to dissuade me. “Don’t move!” they’d say, “You won’t like it!”

I asked why, and the replies were scattered. There was a cluster of “Americans are so shallow!” in the mix, but mostly it was about trivialities like, “Their bread is terrible,” or “You can’t ride your bike anywhere.” My friends clearly had no idea of what life in America is like.

Apple Buys Beats: Who Do I Want to Be When I Grow Up?

It was easy to dismiss Apple when Steve Jobs took back the reins in 1997. It seemed for a while that the company’s only reason for existence was as a fig leaf, allowing Microsoft to claim Windows was not a monopoly. Redmond even bought a substantial amount of Apple stock, maybe as a gesture of support.

But Steve Jobs turned the company around completely. First, he decided the fundamental question: software or hardware? Software was going to be the ticket, from now on. Apple would buy off-the-shelf components to create best-of-breed hardware, but the focus was going to be on functionality and integration, not on capabilities and differentiation.

World Cities

L'America: Poker Face Cool

Before moving to America, I always wondered why poker is such a popular game over here. I mean, we used to play it back in Europe, and of all the card games, it seemed the singularly stupidest. You look at your cards, you try your luck, then you see who’s got the best deal. End of story. Yes, there is a negotiation component, but the only thing it really does is measure your willingness to pretend you are better off – or worse off – than you really are.

Running Out of Time: Mountain Collective Passes Nearly Sold Out

Quick word of warning: while last year’s Mountain Collective passes were “nearly sold out” for months, who knows what’s going to happen this year. In any case, the site lists them as almost sold out, and they are still the best deal in mountains you’ll find.

(A season pass with Epic is my second choice and would be my first choice if I lived closer to Tahoe or Colorado!)

Samsung UD590 4k Monitor and Kubuntu 14.04

I confess I had an itch. Even in my dual monitor setup, I never seemed to have enough visual real estate. If I had the Android development UI full screen on one side and the emulator on the other, it took only a single konsole shell to fill up everything I had. Then I was left without space for instant messaging, writing, emailing, etc.

It’s common year 2014. There are 10 inch tablets with 2560×1600 resolution (Google’s Nexus 10 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″). Why shouldn’t there be a monitor with a resolution higher than that? I mean, what’s the point of having a 30 inch screen if it displays exactly as many pixels as your 10 inch tablet?