The English Cemetery

A nice web application that we developed for the regional administration is now available in English. The Street Gazetteer of Gipuzkoa, is a directory-like organization of all postal addresses of Gipuzkoa (a Basque province inhabited by half a million people) plus other geographic features as mountains, rivers, roads... all geocoded to their exact locations.

As a matter of fact, each postal address of Gipuzkoa, each home in Donostia or any other town, has its own Permalink. I live in Heriz 47, Donostia for instance. Even every kilometer point of a given road.

We decided we needed a new laptop for the family, and we decided it should run free software. Last year we tried to do that buying a macbook, but it didn't work. Before installing Linux, its Mac OS X system didn't detect the wifi system we had at home. It was clearly a malfunction of those Macs shipped last year (case explained in Spanish here). We left the Macbook at the shop, and they refunded us. This year, we bought a new machine, a Sony Vaio laptop with Windows XP, and now we've installed Ubuntu Feisty (thanks to my coleague Txus Sanchez, specially).

Since Guggenheim Bilbao opened, every city around feels it also needs its own touch of imposing architecture, avantgarde and art. So, councils throw money in big big projects. Size of the building is important, and in Donostia, it'a a former 19th century magnificient tobacco factory (the Tabacalera) that will be transformed into the International Contemporary Culture Centre of San Sebastian (official english name, you see, spanish equals english when naming the city, I wonder why it couldn't be native Donostia...).

Tabacalera is in the process of becoming a proper museum, but meanwhile it uses its vast spaces to host things. Last sunday we went as a family to see video-art. Short arty films of some Lemaitre collection, brought together in a show called Free Electrons.



I made some shots (no flash) with my phone, and here comes the security agent. No photos allowed. I protested, we are against the tiranny of privative copyright and we believe art should be free. At the end, the guy accepted a technical excuse: I was making shots of my family. Yes, look at the interferences caused by my son with his toy plane.

If revolutionary art needs millionaire public funding to exist, so it be: after all, modern art is fun to see, and having it near home is good for family life. But I won't abide by the authorities' restrictions over the right of taxpayers to document our lives and cities. Free Electrons? Let them be truly free. When possible, I will keep shooting at Tabacalera, and my photos will be copylefted here. I'm not an artist, but I'll try to be loyal to the true spirit of avantgarde art.

Back to California. 3rd time in a year. Last June, I was there with a coleague attending Where 2.0, then once again in August with for family holiday, and now it will be again Where 2.0, end of May, and also WhereCamp at the beggining of June.

More importantly, this time, I have to address the audience of Where 2.0 with a Ignite talk about Tagzania! 5 minutes, 20 slides in a presentation that I won't control (slides pass every 15 seconds till the 5 minutes are consumed).

Hopefully, the best Californian blogger of the city I live, Wheylona, will help me polishing my pronunciation and delivering some surf-related jokes. ¿Or will they be about Schwarzenegger?