Posts en portada:
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15 Dec 2009
Key insensitive dictionary in Python
written by Sergio Fernández at 19h34
How nice looks a key case-insensitive dictionary written in Python:
class KeyInsensitiveDict: def init(self, d={}): self.dict[“d”] = {} for k, v in d.items(): self[k] = v def getattr(self, attr): return getattr(self.dict[“d”], attr) def setattr(self, attr, value): setattr(self.dict[“d”], attr, value) def setitem(self, key, value): if (hasattr(key, “lower”)): key = key.lower() self.dict[“d”][key] = value def getitem(self, key): if (hasattr(key, “lower”)): key = key.lower() return self.dict[“d”][key]Actually it’s just a simple usage of the decorator pattern. And I wrote this code because we need it for the Python SPARQL Wrapper.
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2 Dec 2009
Manifesto on the rights of Internet users
written by Sergio Fernández at 12h50
Via Barrapunto (the spanish version of slashdot) I’ve discovered this manifesto on the rights of Internet users by my friend Javier Candeira (aka Candyman):
A group of journalists, bloggers, professionals and creators want to express their firm opposition to the inclusion in a Draft Law of some changes to Spanish laws restricting the freedoms of expression, information and access to culture on the Internet. They also declare that:
- Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.
- Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.
- The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers to competition and slowing down its international projection.
- The proposed laws threaten creativity and hinder cultural development. The Internet and new technologies have democratized the creation and publication of all types of content, which no longer depends on an old small industry but on multiple and different sources.
- Authors, like all workers, are entitled to live out of their creative ideas, business models and activities linked to their creations. Trying to hold an obsolete industry with legislative changes is neither fair nor realistic. If their business model was based on controlling copies of any creation and this is not possible any more on the Internet, they should look for a new business model.
- We believe that cultural industries need modern, effective, credible and affordable alternatives to survive. They also need to adapt to new social practices.
- The Internet should be free and not have any interference from groups that seek to perpetuate obsolete business models and stop the free flow of human knowledge.
- We ask the Government to guarantee net neutrality in Spain, as it will act as a framework in which a sustainable economy may develop.
- We propose a real reform of intellectual property rights in order to ensure a society of knowledge, promote the public domain and limit abuses from copyright organizations.
- In a democracy, laws and their amendments should only be adopted after a timely public debate and consultation with all involved parties. Legislative changes affecting fundamental rights can only be made in a Constitutional law.
Note: This manifesto is the work of several authors, and the property of everyone. Copy it, publish it, pass it on as you will.
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17 Sep 2009
HTC Magic and Android, my review
written by Sergio Fernández at 08h33

Some weeks ago my old k800i died. The best choice could be the new N900 with Maemo5. But time and prize restrictions make difficult this option, so I decided to try other options.Last week I finally got the portability of my number to Vodafone, and with that also my new mobile phone, a HTC Magic with Android. So after a week I think I’m in the right position to express my opinion about this device.

Although it sounds weird, I’d like to start enumerating its bad points:
- The battery is really bullshit, less than one day. If you take care of shutdown some things (3G and WiFi mainly), I got two days. II’ve read that with other unofficial ROMs this time can be enlarged, but no time yet to check it.
- I don’t really like the idea to lose the physical keyboard in a mobile phone. Although I’m starting to write faster with the on-screen keyboard, I’m quite faster writing on my N810.
- Very few free software on the official Market. I still prefer the repository approach than a central market.
- Although it’s a linux-based operative system, actually you don’t have a Linux device (as Maemo is). Therefore you can not access to the huge catalog of software that currently works on GNU/Linux.
- And the camera is really bad :-/
A now the things that I like:
- HTC is making a good work, the device moves well, it’s light and quite nice.
- It’s an open source platform, at least mostly.
- I’ve software for a big part of my needs. And I can developer whatever I want, not like in other platforms.
- Integration with Google services is superb. It’s a pity not to have support for voice/video in GTalk (as we have in Maemo two years ago), but that looks more a commercial problem (phone operators won’t allow it) than technical.
- 24/7 connectivity is amazing. For the first time I can enjoy my own connection since I moved to my new flat.
I’ve to say that the platform is still in a very early stage of development. Without going further, this week Android 1.6 SDK was released. Let’s see how far it goes…
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15 Jun 2009
SDoW2009
written by Sergio Fernández at 10h41
After a shot holidays in Sardinia, I’m back to announce the 2nd International Workshop on Social Data on the Web (SDoW2009), that will be held at Washington in October, co-located with the 8th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2009). We’ve just send out the CfP, contributions are welcomed until
July 24thAugust 10th.I’m very proud to co-chair for the second consecutive year this workshop with John, Uldis and Alex. Last year in Karlsruhe we enjoyed an amazing day, let see what we can get this year.
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12 May 2009
Migrating to libre.fm
written by Sergio Fernández at 18h31
Some weeks ago I decided not to use more last.fm. Thanks to a set of python scripts, today I completed the migration of my tracklist to libre.fm. It’s nice to know that I’m the owner of my own data :-)
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7 May 2009
Bocanegra revives
written by Sergio Fernández at 23h21
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25 Apr 2009
Two Free Software weeks in Asturias
written by Sergio Fernández at 11h08
The previous week the course «El Software Libre, fundamentos e impacto en la sociedad» started at the University of Oviedo, with the collaboration of CTIC Foundation and Morfeo Project. Yesterday it was the last session. And I’d like to say that, in spite of the heterogeneity of students, I’m very happy with the result of this academic experiment, and it might not be the last.
But in the middle of these two weeks of course, AsturLiNUX celebrated its 10th anniversary with a brief event last Saturday. Although I’m a little bit missing this year, I’m sure the association can continue many more years helping to spread the free software in Asturias.
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25 Mar 2009
Mailing Lists and Social Semantic Web
written by Sergio Fernández at 15h31
Today I’ve received my printed copy of the book Social Web Evolution: Integrating Semantic Applications and Web 2.0 Technologies, which includes a chapter titled Mailing Lists and Social Semantic Web gathering all the work made these last years around SWAML, SIOC, mailing lists and the Social Semantic Web.This is the first book that I’ve written, so I’m very proud of it. Thank you to the co-authors of the chapter (Diego, Lian, Labra and Patricia), the editors of the book, and all the people that help us during these years.
If someone wants to take a look at book, you can find it on Amazon or just use the preview provided by Google Books.
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25 Mar 2009
Bye bye last.fm
written by Sergio Fernández at 15h06
Last.fm Radio will soon require a payment subscription, so that means the end of three years and a half using it. I pay for other services, such as hosting, flickr and other; but not just to share the list of the music I usually listen (I don’t really use radios too much).
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14 Mar 2009
Put your data on the Web
written by Sergio Fernández at 11h23
Now, I want you to put your data on the Web.
Tim Berners-Lee on his talk about the 20th birthday of World Wide Web and talking about Linked Data.







