Runkeeper Globak 5K

"Congratulations on completing the first ever Runkeeper Global 5k! You crossed the finish line with thousands of other runners from the Runkeeper community. Our Global 5k was a demonstration of how large and diverse the international running community is, and just how great it is to be a part of this group."

I took part and paid the price, my knees/feets are complaining but it was worth the effort.

Why we play paintball?

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD - Vehicle models

The full gallery is here.

Patricia, misinformation?

A local channel, share a meteorologist claims that the information provided to us was incorrect (video in spanish).



It is not surprising such statements, "nos espantaron con el petate del muerto".

However this experience has made it clear that we are not prepared for these situations.

Category 5 Hurricane Patricia Heads Into Mexico

This is not good.

CERN donates supercomputer.

Today I found a note saying that the CERN donated a supercomputer to the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH).

"..12 tons of technology valued at two million dollars to create in this state, the Regional Laboratory of High Performance Computing."

And it continues "to build a 'mega server' that will detonate scientific research, database archiving and could support institutions in southeastern Mexico and Central America."

This is something that I question, in my country there are few people who choose to pursue a research career, positions are few and are not the best paid.

"Put together the super computer will take about two months, the project leaders said."

Assuming nothing goes wrong or anything was damaged in shipment or during installation. 

However, it is excellent news that the CERN donate so much equipment to college, I have desires to hear in the coming months that the equipment is operating and that there are enough projects using it, time will tell.

The link to the note, if you want to know more.

Un inesperado fanático a la Formula 1.

Mientras veía a Ted reportar posterior a la carrera de Singapur, tuve la impresión de reconocer un rostro muy familiar para los mexicanos.

Resulta que es fanático del automovilismo.

¿Qué es un hombre?

Racing time!

This weekend finally we went to a new place to race with electric go karts!  It was fun and exciting!!!  I expect that we can go in the near future. 

You have certain amount of time (minutes) so it depends on your skills how many turns you can do.

The name of the place? "Volta Racing Labs".

Figuras de sombras usando las manos (imagenes)

Schrodinger's Backup

Via @nixCraft

Formula 1. The future?

Could this be the future of Formula 1?  I wish, in the last years bad decisions were taken and most of the races are boring, something needs to change and evolution should be allowed always.

Link to the full album here.

¿Cierran el ZooMAT?

Una noticia un tanto desagradable y desconcertante relacionada con el Zoológico de Tuxtla Gutiérrez: no tienen presupuesto.

"Federico Álvarez del Toro, Director General de la Coordinación Estatal para el Mejoramiento del Zoológico Miguel Álvarez del Toro (ZooMAT), adelantó que debido al recorte presupuestal que sufrieron, a partir de agosto el complejo no contará con recursos para la manutención de los animales que ahí se exhiben.

“Dos millones de pesos nos faltan para terminar 2015, por lo que estamos gestionando nos lo proporcionen, pues su carencia incide directamente en el rubro de alimentos para los animales”, reveló. Dijo que al año el ZooMAT tiene un presupuesto de 25 millones de pesos.

 
Nota tomada de Facebook (la liga original no existe más). 

Star Wars™ Battlefront™: Gameplay Multijugador “Walker Assault” en Hoth | E3 2015

Call of Duty - Mega

My family had a great success giving me as a birthday present a couple of "MEGABLOKS" sets based on the "Call of Duty" videogame, for sure many of you have seen them at stores near to where you live.

These gifst made me very happy and also as a consecuence I shared a lot of time with them.

While we were assembling all the pieces, I kept looking at the boxes and I notice the coordinates provided. What location are providing? What could be at that place? I did some research and found a site where people were sharing their ideas and questions just like me.

Soon I found that the coordinates (for one of the sets)  takes you to:  4300 Rue Hickmore, Montréal, QC H4T 1K2. The company? Unisource.

 Using google to check the coordinates I saw the name of company at one of the front buildings, which happens to be a paper company, a customs importer AND also  MEGABLOKS headquarters.

So, What about the other set?  Where is the action taking place? Florida.   To which point is the sniper aiming? Probably to the sea trying to spot a submarine or a ship? Or to the shore and is about to shoot the enemies? That I'll leave it to you.

México - Denominaciones de Origen

Las denominaciones de origen con las que cuenta México

Tomado de la página de FB de el "Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial"

FIA World Rally Championship - Rally Portugal - Kubica

Robert Kubica, ex piloto de Fórmula 1, piloto de rally.

"Podría decirse que es el piloto más famoso del WRC, Kubica se ganó su fama en la Fórmula 1, cuando en 2005 se convirtió en el primer polaco en competir en ese campeonato.

Entre 2006 y 2009 corrió para el BMW Sauber F1 Team. Ganó el Gran Premio de Canadá de 2008 y finalizó tercero en el campeonato ese mismo año antes de una decepcionante temporada 2009, lo que le hizo cambiar de aires y fichar por Renault en 2010.

Apasionados de todas las competiciones de motor, el polaco pasaba gran parte de su pretemporada corriendo en rallyes. Pero el 6 de febrero de 2011 sufrió un grave accidente que a punto estuvo de costarle la muerte en el Rallye Ronde di Andora, puntuable para el campeonato italiano.

Después de más de un año de rehabilitación, gran parte centrado en su brazo y mano derecha, volvió a correr en septiembre de 2012 y ganó el rallye italiano Ronde Gomitolo di Lana.

En 2013, con su carrera deportiva en los circuitos en suspenso por sus lesiones, Kubica se lanzó a por iniciar su andadura en los rallyes. Disputó una temporada completa de pruebas en el Europeo y el Campeonato del Mundo con un Citroën DS3 RRC especialmente adaptado con un sistema de cambio de marchas en el volante."

Tomado de la página de la WRC.

En los tiempos en que corría en la F1, era uno de los pilotos que apoyaba junto con Heidfeld y corrían para BMW, es difícil olvidar el accidente en Canada de 2007 del cual salió con un esguince en el tobillo y que pudo haber sido peor.

El pueblo primero.

4 x 40.00

Excelente promoción que encontré en una taquería.

Son de esas oportunidades que no puedes dejar pasar, incluyendo el probar un delicioso "refreco".

La pelea del siglo.

La supuesta "pelea del siglo" ni fue pelea y falta mucho para que termine el siglo.

Paquiao corrió y corrió tratando de alcanzar a un Mayweather que se dedicó a bailar y huir y esquivar.

Lástima que éste sea el box que promocionan actualmente. Todo lo que se dijo no alcanzó para que fuera la pelea que tanto promocionaron. Mayweather debes la revancha a todo el público.

Aerolíneas TAR

Es la primera ocasión que viajo con la aerolínea de bajo costo "TAR" y no resultó tan bien como esperaba. El vuelo llegó con retraso por lo que hubo tiempo suficiente para leer lo que ocurría en la ciudad. Busquen las noticias de éste día, nada relacionado con el fallecimiento de María Elena Velasco.

El avión es un "Embraer ERJ-145" con capacidad para 50 pasajeros, el mismo tipo de aviones de Aeromexico "Connect", desde que ingresas tienes que agachar la cabeza para no golpearte. Debo resaltar que la atención proporcionada por el personal durante el vuelo fue excelente.

Espero que la aerolínea tenga la demanda suficiente para crecer, obtener más rutas y mejores aviones.

Chevrolet Truck Pickup

Today I was lucky to found an old Chevrolet Truck Pickup in good conditions.

The front of the truck as you see it was nice but, from the back it was horrible, it needs some love, belongs to a gardener that was probably working nearby.

Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

Hoy compré una "Raspberry Pi 2 Model B". Aún no sé para que la usaré, pero tenía muchas ganas de tener una.

Quien me la vendió me platicó de muchos proyectos que se pueden hacer, será como siempre cuestión de darme el tiempo para hacer algo "interesante".

Por cierto, el collage lo hice con ayuda de éste sitio:  http://www.photocollage.net/collage/

Museo de Paleontología, GDL Jalisco

OnePlus One

Finalmente ha llegado el One Plus One.

Sí es cierto que tiene una pantalla amplia, no es pesado aunque tampoco es muy ligero, el personal de One Plus fue muy atento y respondieron todas las preguntas que tenía posteriores a la compra.

No podré compartir mi experiencia de uso ya que he decidido regalarlo, no he conseguido un "holster" o "clip" como le llamarían algunos y sería poco práctio e incómodo traerlo así.

Paseando por Comitán, Tzimol y Lagos de Colón

I'm shutting down my Tor node.

I'm shutting down my Tor node. I'm doing this because my ISP (Axtel) for some unknown reason (for them) can't fix an issue with the Zhone gateway device.

This is affecting the way the Tor node works and if I can't offer a stable connection the best I can do is to shutdown the node. This does not make me happy but at least I could share some bandwith and I want to believe that people who really needed was able to use it.

For the history, this is the graph:

What's next?  Test the MinnowBoard MAX with Android / OpenBSD / FreeBSD / NetBSD / etc.  If you wonder what the issue is with the Zhone device, it keeps the dhcp address for all the connected devices but there's no connection to the Internet. Why? Axtel support does not have idea. Until now, all the answers that I get from them are lies.

Once, they told me that they applied a patch, that a firmware-update was needed another timethey  just did a reboot and asked me to check the connection. I was taking note of every excuse the told me so the last time that I reported the issue for every lie that they told me in the past I said that "it's done, what else are you going to try?".

So they came up again with the "firmware upgrade is needed".  I verified the version already installed and took note of everything that I could check. The lied again and just performed a reboot. And that's why I can't keep a stable Tor node online. Sad but true.

¡Lotería!

Formula 1 - Australia 2015.

I've been waiting for the start of the season and I feel very disappointed, instead of having 20 cars starting the race, only 15 started and 11 finished the race. 

 

I read everywhere the declarations from different teams, personalities, fans, ex-pilots, "we need a change". If Ferrari/Williams/Red Bull can't offer a real fight, the team Mercedes is going to dominate the season just like they did the last year.

This isn't what I wanna see, in the years when Ferrari won everything year after year (sorry Ferrari fans, no offence intended) I stopped watching F1. I started to see other races, Indy/CART were the option those years.  I re-started to watch F1 races "recentrly" and it was refreshing seeing other teams/pilots winning. With the recent changes the F1 is loosing (more) audience.

Bernie is not interested on getting the attention of new generations 'cause they don't have the money to buy the watch that we see in the commercial announcments. So who's going to be present at the races in the next years?

I'll leave you with a video "Ted's race notebook", he does a fast review of every team/pilot after each race. Btw, if you know of another guy that does better, please let me know.

UPDATE: Here used to be a YouTube video that was removed because of "multiple third-party notifications of copyright infrigement". Not mine, uploaded by someone else.

FIA World Rally Championship - Rally México

 FIA World Rally Championship

Review Clip Rally México

Who you gonna call ?

No, I'm not refering the theme song of that famous 80's movie. It's about the previous entry in my blog, let's say that you're not a company, you're just a person who are a victim of a cyber attack, now what?

Who you gonna call?  In the first years when there was an increased interest to access the Internet in Mexico a solid option was to call the UNAM-CERT, around 2002 the  government created a "Cybernetic Police" (http://www.ssp.gob.mx/portalWebApp/wlp.c?__c=f7124), people were struggling trying to reach them, it wasn't easy to create a report, you had to deal exactly the same you did with every other agency.

(Image linked from Forbes)

Around two years ago, the police of Mexicy City (SSPDF) created their own division, here's a note of  the announcement, they even have a twitter account: https://twitter.com/CiberneticaCDMX  which retweets more political notes that real info about network security or preventive actions.

And just few months ago, TELMEX ( the preponderant, monopolist ISP in MX) announced the "first cybersecurity center for Mexico and LatinAmerica" (no kidding!): "With these actions, TELMEX reiterates the commitment to make available to our customers, our infrastructure, technology and world class services to prevent and treat cyber attacks. Actions that complement the services that already have such as information technology, hosting, application development and systems, cloud platforms, unified communications, virtualization, among others.".

It would be interesting to know how many reports they get from end users, how many are resolved for real. So... Who you gonna call?.

Are you prepared for a cyber attack?

"In less than 300 seconds you can experience the speed and intensity of a cyber attack. Today companies can defend themselves, taking control of the situation - effectively fighting back. Are you prepared?"

That's the text that describes the following video:

It's a very good dramatization of what could happen to your company or to you but, it's not that simple as calling a "company" and install/configure monitoring systems, firewalls, ids, honeypots, etc; in a very short amount of time.

This is only an example of attacks of the outside, the video assumes that you can trust your employees 100%.  I know by first hand that this is not entirely truth.

In a previous job, there was a guy who started to modify the established configurations and "helped" his friends to get some advantages that were not covered according to the contract that they signed.

His boss found the discrepancies on the configurations, they started to monitor what was going on and got him. I knew later that they fired him, his name and other details were provided to similar companies assuming he wants to try something similar at other places.

Obviously, not all the people work this way or do illegal activities at work, you can trust people. The difficult part is to know who.

UPDATE: The owner of the video I posted first requires you to start your session on YouTube, so I searched for a new video which I had to say it's more a commercial but shows a similar situation as the first video.

Los auténticos Malditos Bastardos

Parte de la historia poco conocida, el de los comandos judíos que lucharon contra los nazis durante la segunda guerra mundial.

Setup a Tor node using a MinnowBoard Max and Debian (Jeessie)

So, after reading Gunnar's blog post about how he configured a Tor node using his "Cubox-i4Pro" I decided to try and setup one using the MinnowBoard MAX and the installation of Debian done previously accepting the "Tor Challenge".

Once you have your GNU/Linux distribution installed/configured the way you want (and needed to setup the TOR node), this is what I have in the configuration file:

Tor Configuration File (torrc):
SocksPort 0
ORPort 9001
Nickname ididnteditheconfig
RelayBandwidthRate 640 KB
RelayBandwidthBurst 640 KB
ContactInfo Random Person
ExitPolicy reject *:*
BridgeRelay 1
DisableDebuggerAttachment 0

Like Gunnar, I ended with an "exit relay" instead of a "bridge relay", so I had to modify the configuration file accordingly. Please, do not do a "copy & paste" (at least not entirely) of what I wrote here.

You need to configure the "Relay*" parameters based on the available bandwith that you plan to share And you have to setup the iptables rules too, this is what I have (I'm forced to use NAT):

*filter

:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]

-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp -d your.ip.here --dport 9001 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p udp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT
#Allow ICMP
-A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type 8 -s 0/0 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT


-A OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT
-A OUTPUT -p icmp --icmp-type 0 -d 0/0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A OUTPUT -p tcp -s your.ip.here --sport 9001 -j ACCEPT
-A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 123 -j ACCEPT
-A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT

-A FORWARD -j DROP

COMMIT

Here's a snapshot of the last days:

If you accept the challenge, please take your time and read carefully all the documentation, do not setup a Tor node if you're not the owner of the hardware, you better setup a "bridge relay" if you plan to share the bandwith from your home, if you are allowed to install the Tor node from your job/collegue, then you should configure a relay exit.

24 de Febrero, Día de la Bandera en México.

El Día de la Bandera en México se celebra cada año el24 de Febrero desde 1937, fue establecido siendo presidente de México el General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río.

La fecha fue seleccionada ya que el 24 de Febrero de 1821, Agustín de Iturbide y el General Vicente Guerrero proclamaron el "Plan de Iguala". En ésta misma fecha, José Magdaleno Ocampo adaptó la primer bandera tricolor con los colores blanco, verde y rojo; en ése específico orden: blanco, que simboliza la pureza de la religión católica; verde, representa al movimiento insurgente ó a la independencia y rojo, que representa al grupo Español adherido al impulso libertador.

El significado cambió con el presidente Benito Juárez, a mediados del siglo XIX, verde: la esperanza, blanco: la unidad y rojo: la sangre de los héroes nacionales.



Cada aniversario (además de los honores que se realiza cada Lunes en las instituciones educativas y militares) se canta el "Toque de Bandera":

"Se levanta en el mástil mi bandera
como un sol entre céfiros y trinos
muy adentro en el templo de mi veneración,
oigo y siento contento latir mi corazón.

Es mi bandera, la enseña nacional,
son estas notas su cántico marcial.

Desde niños sabremos venerarla
Y también por su amor, ¡vivir!

Almo y sacro pendón que en nuestro anhelo
como rayo de luz se eleva al cielo
inundando a través de su lienzo tricolor
inmortal nuestro ser de fervor y patrio ardor.

Es mi bandera, la enseña nacional,
son estas notas su cántico marcial.
Desde niños sabremos venerarla
Y también por su honor, ¡VIVIR!."

 Y también tenemos el "Juramento a la Bandera":

"¡Bandera de México!,
legado de nuestros Héroes
símbolo de la unidad
de nuestros padres
y nuestros hermanos,
te prometemos ser siempre fieles
a los principios de libertad y justicia
que hacen de nuestra Patria
la nación independiente,
humana y generosa
a la que entregamos nuestra existencia"

Mas información, aquí.


ACTUALIZACIÓN 2019:

The final(?) design of the laser cut acrylic case for the MinnowBoard MAX

So, finally here we are with the final(?) design of the case for my MinnowBoard MAX, the last days were of lots of fun/knowledge, despite that I was not the one who "cut" the acrylic but gave the ideas about how I wanted it to look.

It was also an excellent oportunity to meet people (designer) and pay for the (very well done) job 'cause there's no chance that I do it in the same amount of time or wasting more material than he did. 

I reallize that designers help us to get things done and that we should consider that they invest time trying to achieve what we want based on our ideas/requirements and that's not always easy to do.

Transparent, green and blue. I like them!

Laser cut acrylic case for MinnowBoard MAX.

I'ts been two days and I got a call from makerlab saying they had a "prototype" of the case and needed the board to verify/make adjustments to the design.

In the afternoon we had the first version of the case but with some adjustments/changes requested by the other autor of this blog, we paid the design and lef the board this night at makerlab so they could work on the case and provide the final result.

Today in the afternoon, I got the very first case (I requested a transparent) and had the chance to see the laser cutter in action (sorry about the poor quality of the video, the camera of my cell didn't work as expected).

I really like it in the transparent case but the green one also looks very nice!! 

There was something that was not considered....  the size of the USB keys / the mini HDMI connector.

 Also, the size of the transparent acrylic was "smaller" than the green, causing to be more difficult to assemble/disassemble it, and I payed the price.  I broke one of the pieces while I was trying to get the board out of the case, and despite that "little" accident the case seemed to keep the board safe.

 Only one more (and last!) visit to  do for the the final adjustments to the case and "voilà" our very own acrylic case for our MinnowBoard MAX!!

A 3D printed case or a designed laser cut case for a MinnowBoard MAX.

What to do if you can't get the extenders?  There must be a good reason, so I tried something else. I went back to check the 3D printed half case and my wife told me about a place near were she believed they had a 3D printer. I started to look at Google Maps, found the place and called.

I explained to the guy who pick up the phone that I had a board very similar to the Raspberry Pi/Arduino, asked him if he knew what I was talking about and he replied saying "Yes, recently I did a 3D printed case for a Raspberry Pi, come over and let's have a talk!".

Today in the afternoon I was at "makerlab" I provided the link to the "half case", asked about the prices but I was not really convinced about the half case, so we started to look at other images and this guy tells me, "look, I can use this as a base and design a new one for you using acrylic/laser cutter in about... two days".

I'm a desperate person. I really wanted a 3D printed case today!!!  So I just take a deep breath and agree to wait for the design from the makerlab guy.

Lures and cases for my MinnowBoard MAX.

I considered several options to protect this board, I checked from the simplest (lures), 3D printed half case and a full case.

Trying to find the screw space extenders (I took the idea from the lures) is a pain, places like "Tornillos y Tornillos" didn't have them (they didn't recognize them!), I got recommendations to look at other business like "Herrajes Bulnes" but I just couldn't be there before they close, I did some calls explaining what I was looking for, I sent e-mails with pictures to someone at  "Tecnofijaciones" but got no answer from them.

I found only this web site (www.grainger.com.mx) with different sizes of the space extenders, would you believe me if I told you that I called and no one ever picked up the phone? I am really dissapointed 'cause I really want to get those extenders.

Will continue...

Installing Debian to a MinnowBoard MAX.

Finally I got Debian (Jessie) installed at the MinnowBoard MAX.  I had to do a couple of tries 'cause with the emotion I forgot to check the minimum space needed to perform a very basic installation.

 I tried first using a 2 GB USB key, then a 4GB USB key which worked perfectly fine with the exception of the /var partition, which almost got full while downloading packages. So let's see (almost) every step.

1.- Booting

I got "UEFI shell" and saw the USB key available and ready to boot, some explanations here about this.

Really, it's not that hard to boot and start the installation, you just need to read a little if you really don't know what are you doing.

2.- Install

Let's start the installation of Debian!

"Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate". As of now, I didn't take a look at this, I just continue with the installation and everything went fine.

As I said before, I used a couple of USB keys (2 GB with the image to install, 4GB to get the basic installation completed) to get things done. The board comes with 2 USB ports, 2.0 and 3.0. Also a  SATA port is available so you can use a hard drive if you plan to use this a a mini-pc or something like that.

 

 Look at the size of the partitions, I tried with different approaches until I got enough space for /var partition, remember I'm using a 4 GB USB key, if you're not planning to put some big files inside your home, use that space and assign it to the /var partition. 

Yes please! let's get this installation completed! (check that I was using "sdb", the 2 GB USB key)

And here's when I found my mistake (not checking the minimal space required for partitions) I was using the 2GB USB key as final destination, I should have used the 4GB USB key from the very beginning.

  
Yeah.... error but not related to what is provided by the installation procedure so, let's take a look at virtual console 4 (or just skip it and keep reading).

If you check slowly the messages you're going to read "No space left on device".   I powered off the board, swapped the USB keys, booted, restarted the installation and.....

1.1 (Re) Installation.

Yes!! this time we got the installation going on, btw... when you're doing a network installation remember to use your nearest mirror :)

And we're done! The installation of Debian (Jessie) is completed I just need one more thing. A case.

MinnowBoard MAX

So, this time I'm lucky to have a MinnowBoard MAX :)

I'll do some tests installing Debian, Android and who knows? For now I just tested that boots, sends output using the HDMI port and was looking for places that might sell the cable to use the serial port.

You are cleared for takeoff

This is a video I made with my Galaxy Nexus 5, that day was windy so please excuse all the shaking, it was difficult to avoid. The position of the plane at the runway is from the southeast to the northwest so the start of the flight shows you part of the easth and the north.

You can see part of the airport, mountains were a highway communicates Tuxtla Gutiérrez and San Cristóbal de las Casas (~45 minutes driving a car), the clouds covered part of the Sumidero Canyon National Park and I'm not 100% sure but maybe part of Chiapa de Corzo and at the end of the video a small part of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.