Happy Birthday Peru! Feliz 28 de Julio Perú!
This amazing place located in Peru’s high-altitude jungle, has been visited by millions of people, and continues to be a landmark of the Inca Empire that flourished over 800 years ago. It’s capital was in Cusco, the same region where Machupicchu belongs to. Today it is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
Peru has an amazing geography: thousands of beautiful beaches, the second highest mountain range in the World (the Andes) and is the birthplace of the Amazon river. Now add to that great food, and good people and you get a great place to visit!
Before the the Electronic Frontier Foundation won this case it was a grey area that Apple chose to ignore, but others on the video front of fair-use opposed vehemently.
On a related subject the court decided that selective ripping of DVDs, or using video clips for “noncommercial works for purposes of criticism or comment” is permissible under US law.
Music is that wonderful invisible force that touches our souls.
Photos from last weekend’s Beaches Jazz Festival in Toronto.
Do not confuse activity with accomplishment… [you must engage in] specific, clearly identifiable objectives, you gotta have goals!
You will never make it as a wondering generality, you must become a meaningful specific.
A goal properly set is halfway reached.
Zig Ziglar.
All of us have experienced how time escapes from our hands, and literally disappears from sight. Why? Because when there is a lack of goals with their associated target dates, and action plans we live hour after hour doing things, the problem is we accomplish very little.
People without goals sail the ocean of time without a compass or a map. We travel to nowhere land, but feel very busy. In the process we get distracted by the sights, the boat and the people we meet in the ocean. No wonder time seems to disappear!
Realize goals are not dreams. Yes we need dreams, they are the visions, the inspirations that motivate us to sail. But without goals our cherished dreams will never materialize. Remember the time to start is always now.
In Project Management this comes naturally: make a plan, set key milestones and dates, break process into meaningful phases, identify roadblocks and account for them, do proper risk management, etc. Guess what: those skills and best practices help with your daily life too!
Spain wins the World Cup!
This Sunday Spain has finally made the miracle, and ended this World Cup with a well deserved win over Holland, that proved a very tough opponent.
South Africa was a wonderful host, and this last game in Johannesburg was the perfect ending for a great event. Over 15 heads of state attended the match including Queen Sofia of Spain, and the prime minister of Holland Jan Peter Balkenende. Also in attending were Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, tennis star Rafael Nadal and from South Africa actress Charlize Theron. Last but not least, Morgan Freeman was probably delighted to be there, after portraying the great Nelson Mandela in the movie Invictus.
However this final game itself was a bit disappointing, mainly because instead of fair play the Dutch got desperate, and did not play their fantastic “total football” but frequently resorted to very aggressive fouls that frequently made the game look like a Martial Arts fight instead of a football final. Fortunately refereeing was solid, and eventually things did calm down a bit, but the game was slow, the Spanish dominated, but the Dutch had several good counter attacks that proved dangerous.
Three people proved fundamental for Spain’s victory: Vicente Del Bosque the coach whose strategy proved decisive, he stopped Holland from playing their game, and created a team that was almost unstoppable. Iker Casillas who as goalkeeper and captain motivated the team and saved several shots that could have been goals for Holland, and finally Andrés Iniesta who in spite of being fouled multiple times, never stopped trying, and on the 116th. minute scored a beautiful goal.
Spain’s win, is a win for football, not only because they were playing better, but because they chose to honor fair play, to remind us all that “el juego bonito” the beautiful game, is the right way forward. They never gave up, they did not became disillusioned in spite of an elusive goal, and a relentless opponent, instead they just pressed on, believing that the final goal would come any minute, they persevered and reaped the rewards: Spain won!
Bravo Spain! ¡Viva España!
Photo Credits: ABC España
News Sources: Miami Herald, Clarin, ABC España.
Every WorldCup Country Flag in Twitter #HASHTAGS
The biggest sporting event in the world is ongoing now, the FIFA WorldCup 2010! And it was a very fan friendly surprise to see Twitter recognizing every participating country flags!
It works only with the web client, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other Desktop clients will support it too.
The hashtag flags above are ordered sequentially by group, here is an easier way to find them all:
Group A
South Africa - Mexico - Uruguay - France
#RSA - #MEX - #URU - #FRA
Group B
#ARG #NGA #KOR #GRE
Group C
England – U.S.A. – Algeria – Slovenia
#ENG #USA #ALG #SVN
Group D
Germany – Australia – Serbia – Ghana
#GER #AUS #SRB #GHA
Group E
Netherlands – Denmark – Japan – Cameroon
#NED #DEN #JPN #CMR
GROUP F
Italy – Paraguay – New Zealand – Slovakia
#ITA #PAR #NZL #SVK
GROUP G
Brazil – North Korea – Ivory Coast – Portugal
#BRA #PRK #CIV #POR
GROUP H
Spain – Switzerland – Honduras – Chile
#ESP #SUI #HON #CHI
And last but no least, Twitter has a live feed covering each game, and all the news from the Worldcup online here.
The iPad Revelation.
On January 27th 2010, Steve Jobs took the stage and introduced Apple’s latest creation: the iPad. Unlike other “revolutionary products”, it did not get as much media attention or enthusiasm from experts. Pundits would find several issues with it: “it doesn’t have a camera”, “there is no USB port”, “it’s just an oversized iPhone” etc.
But something started to change in late May and June. People, regular people actually started buying them, and having the experience of using a totally different device, definitely not an iPhone, but dangerously close to their regular computer.
Users everywhere would report that this thing was changing their life, they would leave the laptop behind for days, and most couldn’t explain what was the iPad advantage, but they knew this experience was better, much better than the “old laptop days.”
Last week, I also took an iPad for a spin. After a few minutes it dawned on me: this is the future, and the beginning of the end of the PC era. Nothing I have ever used was so seamless, so simple and yet so “computer like” as the iPad.
Except the original Mac from 1984. When the Macintosh was introduced to the world it was also far beyond it’s time, and lots of pundits said it was not ready to take on regular business PCs of the day. But it brought irreversible change to the ways computer work: graphical interfaces, user friendliness, and a mouse.
The iPad is very much like the Mac of old, it shows us the things to come: Touch interfaces, instant on boot time, carry anywhere Internet and unbelievable simplicity. And that’s the big revelation few have seen about the iPad yet: it’s like 1984 all over again.
