Como saco que paquetes tengo instalados en ubuntu apt-get
sudo dpkg --get-selections | grep '[[:space:]]install$' | \awk '{print $1}' > package_list
cat package_list | xargs sudo apt-get install

2 Sep 2009(06:13:45)

Y en los tiempos oscuros, ¿habrá canto?
Sí. Habrá el canto sobre los tiempos oscuros.
Bertolt Brecht

Hace unos días, el presidente Felipe Calderón criticó a los críticos y convocó a hablar bien de México: "Hablar bien de México, de las ventajas que México tiene… es la manera de construir, precisamente, el futuro del país". Y de allí, siguiendo su propio exhorto, pasó a congratularse porque la tasa de homicidios por cada 100 mil habitantes aquí es más baja que en Colombia, Brasil, El Salvador o Nueva Orleáns. Las ventajas de México quedarán claras cuando decidamos hablar bien del país, concluyó.

Escribo ahora para pedirte –lector o lectora– que hagas exactamente lo contrario a lo que el Presidente exige. Escribo ahora para recordarte que el estoicismo, la resignación, la complicidad, el silencio, y la impasibilidad de tantos explican por qué un país tan majestuoso como México ha sido tan mal gobernado. Es la tarea del ciudadano, como lo apuntaba Günter Grass, vivir con la boca abierta. Hablar bien de los ríos claros y transparentes, pero hablar mal de los políticos opacos y tramposos; hablar bien de los árboles erguidos y frondosos pero hablar mal de las instituciones torcidas y corrompidas; hablar bien del país pero hablar mal de quienes se lo han embolsado.

El oficio de ser un buen ciudadano parte del compromiso de llamar a las cosas por su nombre. De descubrir la verdad aunque haya tantos empeñados en esconderla. De decirle a los corruptos que lo han sido; de decirle a los abusivos que deberían dejar de serlo; de decirle a quienes han expoliado al país que no tienen derecho a seguir haciéndolo; de mirar a México con la honestidad que necesita; de mostrar que somos mejores que nuestra clase política y no tenemos el gobierno que merecemos. De vivir anclado en la indignación permanente: criticando, proponiendo, sacudiendo. De alzar la vara de medición. De convertirte en autor de un lenguaje que intenta decirle la verdad al poder. Porque hay pocas cosas peores –como lo advertía Martin Luther King– que el apabullante silencio de la gente buena. Ser ciudadano requiere entender que la obligación intelectual mayor es rendirle tributo a tu país a través de la crítica.

Ahora bien, ser un buen ciudadano en México no es una tarea fácil. Implica tolerar los vituperios de quienes te exigen que te pases el alto, cuando insistes en pararte allí. Implica resistir las burlas de quienes te rodean cuando admites que pagas impuestos, porque lo consideras una obligación moral. Lleva con frecuencia a la sensación de desesperación ante el poder omnipresente de los medios, la gerontocracia sindical, los empresarios resistentes al cambio, los empeñados en proteger sus privilegios.

Aun así me parece que hay un gran valor en el espíritu de oposición permanente y constructiva versus el acomodamiento fácil. Hay algo intelectual y moralmente poderoso en disentir del statu quo y encabezar la lucha por la representación de quienes no tienen voz en su propio país. Como apunta el escritor J.M. Coetzee, cuando algunos hombres sufren injustamente, es el destino de quienes son testigos de su sufrimiento padecer la humillación de presenciarlo. Por ello se vuelve imperativo criticar la corrupción, defender a los débiles, retar a la autoridad imperfecta u opresiva. Por ello se vuelve fundamental seguir denunciando las casas de Arturo Montiel y los pasaportes falsos de Raúl Salinas de Gortari y las mentiras de Mario Marín y los abusos de Carlos Romero Deschamps y el escandaloso Partido Verde y los niños muertos de la guardería ABC y los cinco millones de pobres más.

No se trata de desempeñar el papel de quejumbroso y plañidero o erigirse en la Casandra que nadie quiere oír. No se trata de llevar a cabo una crítica rutinaria, monocromática, predecible. Más bien un buen ciudadano busca mantener vivas las aspiraciones eternas de verdad y justicia en un sistema político que se burla de ellas. Sabe que el suyo debe ser un papel puntiagudo, punzante, cuestionador. Sabe que le corresponde hacer las preguntas difíciles, confrontar la ortodoxia, enfrentar el dogma. Sabe que debe asumirse como alguien cuya razón de ser es representar a las personas y a las causas que muchos preferirían ignorar. Sabe que todos los seres humanos tienen derecho a aspirar a ciertos estándares decentes de comportamiento de parte del gobierno. Y sabe que la violación de esos estándares debe ser detectada y denunciada: hablando, escribiendo, participando, diagnosticando un problema o fundando una ONG para lidiar con él.

Ser un buen ciudadano en México es una vocación que requiere compromiso y osadía. Es tener el valor de creer en algo profundamente y estar dispuesto a convencer a los demás sobre ello. Es retar de manera continua las medias verdades, la mediocridad, la corrección política, la mendacidad. Es resistir la cooptación. Es vivir produciendo pequeños shocks y terremotos y sacudidas. Vivir generando incomodidad. Vivir en alerta constante. Vivir sin bajar la guardia. Vivir alterando, milímetro tras milímetro, la percepción de la realidad para así cambiarla. Vivir, como lo sugería George Orwell, diciéndoles a los demás lo que no quieren oír.

Quienes hacen suyo el oficio de disentir no están en busca del avance material, del avance personal o de una relación cercana con un diputado o un delegado o un presidente municipal o un Secretario de Estado o un Presidente. Viven en ese lugar habitado por quienes entienden que ningún poder es demasiado grande para ser criticado. El oficio de ser incómodo no trae consigo privilegios ni reconocimiento, ni premios, ni honores. Uno se vuelve la persona que nadie sabe en realidad si debe ser invitada, o el colaborador de una revista a la cual le recortan la publicidad.

Pero el ciudadano crítico debe poseer una gran capacidad para resistir las imágenes convencionales, las narrativas oficiales, las justificaciones circuladas por televisoras poderosas o Presidentes porristas. La tarea que le toca –te toca– precisamente es la de desenmascarar versiones alternativas y desenterrar lo olvidado. No es una tarea fácil porque implica estar parado siempre del lado de los que no tienen quién los represente, escribe Edward Said. Y no por idealismo romántico, sino por el compromiso con formar parte del equipo de rescate de un país secuestrado por gobernadores venales y líderes sindicales corruptos y monopolistas rapaces. Aunque la voz del crítico es solitaria, adquiere resonancia en la medida en la que es capaz de articular la realidad de un movimiento o las aspiraciones de un grupo. Es una voz que nos recuerda aquello que está escrito en la tumba de Sigmund Freud en Viena: "la voz de la razón es pequeña pero muy persistente".

Vivir así tiene una extraordinaria ventaja: la libertad. El enorme placer de pensar por uno mismo. Eso que te lleva a ver las cosas no simplemente como son, sino por qué llegaron a ser de esa manera. Cuando asumes el pensamiento crítico, no percibes a la realidad como un hecho dado, inamovible, incambiable, sino como una situación contingente, resultado de decisiones humanas. La crisis del país se convierte en algo que es posible revertir, que es posible alterar mediante la acción decidida y el debate público intenso. La crítica se convierte en una forma de abastecer la esperanza en el país posible. Hablar mal de México se vuelve una forma de aspirar al país mejor.

Esta es una posición vital extraordinariamente útil pero heterodoxa en un lugar que cambia pero muy lentamente debido a la complicidad de sus habitantes y sus gobernantes. Porque hay tantos que parten de la premisa: "así es México". Tantos que parten de la inevitabilidad. Tantos que parten de la conformidad. Ya lo decía Octavio Paz: "Y si no somos todos estoicos e impasibles –como Juárez y Cuauhtémoc– al menos procuramos ser resignados, pacientes y sufridos. La resignación es una de nuestras virtudes populares. Más que el brillo de nuestras victorias nos conmueve nuestra entereza ante la adversidad". Allí está nuestro conformismo con la corrupción cuando es compartida. Nuestra propensión a compararnos hacia abajo y congratularnos –como lo hace Felipe Calderón– porque por lo menos México no es tan violento como la ciudad de Nueva Orleáns.

Ante esa propensión al conformismo te invito a hablar mal de México. A formar parte de los ciudadanos que se rehúsan a aceptar la lógica compartida del "por lo menos". A los que ejercen a cabalidad el oficio de la ciudadanía crítica. A los que alzan un espejo para que un país pueda verse a sí mismo tal y como es. A los que dicen "no". A los que resisten el uso arbitrario de la autoridad. A los que asumen el reto de la inteligencia libre. A los que piensan diferente. A los que declaran que el emperador está desnudo. A los que se involucran en causas y en temas y en movimientos más grandes que sí mismos. A los que en tiempos de grandes disyuntivas éticas no permanecen neutrales. A los que se niegan a ser espectadores de la injusticia o la estupidez. A los que critican a México porque están cansados de aquello que Carlos Pellicer llamó "el esplendor ausente". A los que cantan en la oscuridad porque es la única forma de iluminarla.

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

Kill Fee

A kill fee is simply a cancellation fee. This is particularly important for designers and developers because it specifies that you will still get paid for all work completed to-date, even if a client cancels the agreement. Most kill fee clauses are worded to protect the contractor and ensure they get paid, regardless of the reason the client cancels.

Independent Contractor

This clause should clearly state that you are an independent contractor and not an employee of your client’s organization. It’s an important clause because it ensures that you are not entering into a non-exclusive arrangement, gives you control over how and when you work, and states that you will not receive benefits from the client. Basically, this clause protects you and your independent status.

Non-Exclusivity

Many times this clause is worked into the Independent Contractor clause, but it’s so important that there is some value in giving it its own paragraph. It should reiterate that you are not providing services exclusively to the client and that you have the right to perform services for other clients during the term of the contract.

Indemnification

The Indemnity clause is considered a “hold harmless” clause because it states that you are not an agent of the company. Essentially, it protects you as the contractor from future losses or damages experienced by the client.

Confidentiality

This clause is one that is meant to afford protection to the client and their knowledge capital. It states that as an independent contractor, you will not divulge confidential or proprietary information that you encounter as part of your working relationship.

Warranty

A warranty states that you will do certain things in a certain way and that the client can have certain expectations about the result of your working relationship. This can apply to stating that you will provide services that are consistent with high-quality standards in the industry. It can also specify any support services, troubleshooting and bug fixes you will provide as part of your agreement. If you do include a warranty, it’s important to limit the term and be very specific about what is included.

Ownership

The ownership clause is an especially important one for those in the creative and technical fields because it specifies who owns the final product as well as the working files that were used during the course of the work. This clause can also outline what rights you have as the contractor to use the work and related images in your portfolio. It can also provide permission to include a credit line, stating who did the work, on the final product.

There are other important clauses that should be in your agreement, but these are among the most important ones. Please note that this shouldn’t be considered legal advice and it’s always best to consult with an attorney in order to make sure your contract is bulletproof.

Sebastian Bergmann's presentation on "The State of QA Tools for PHP" at the FrOSCon 2009 conference raised demand for an overview page of .

This page is a first attempt of creating such an overview.
The State of QA Tools for PHP
View more documents from Sebastian Bergmann.
PHPUnit

PHPUnit is the de-facto standard for unit testing in PHP projects. It provides both a framework that makes the writing of tests easy as well as the functionality to easily run the tests and analyse their results.
phploc

phploc is a tool for quickly measuring the size of a PHP project. Its goal is not not to replace more sophisticated tools such as phpcs, pdepend, or phpmd, but rather to provide an alternative to them when you just need to get a quick understanding of a project's size.
phpcpd

phpcpd is a Copy/Paste Detector (CPD) for PHP code. Its goal is not not to replace more sophisticated tools such as phpcs, pdepend, or phpmd, but rather to provide an alternative to them when you just need to get a quick overview of duplicated code in a project.
pdepend

pdepend can generate a large set of software metrics from a given code base. These values can be used to measure the quality of a software project and they help to identify the parts of an application where a code refactoring should be applied.
phpmd

phpmd scans PHP source code and looks for potential problems such as possible bugs, dead code, suboptimal code, and overcomplicated expressions
phpcs

phpcs tokenises PHP, JavaScript and CSS files and detects violations of a defined set of coding standards. It is an essential development tool that ensures your code remains clean and consistent. It can also help prevent some common semantic errors made by developers.
bytekit-cli

bytekit-cli provides a command-line tool that leverages the Bytekit extension to perform common code analysis tasks on the PHP bytecode level.
phpUnderControl

phpUnderControl is a continuous integration solution built on top of CruiseControl. It aims to make your first steps with CruiseControl and PHP as easy as possible.

Gitso is to support others.

Gitso is a frontend to reverse VNC connections. It is meant to be a simple two-step process that connects one person to another's screen. First, the support person offers to give support. Second, the person who needs help connects and has their screen remotely visible. Because Gitso is cross-platform (Ubuntu, OS X and Windows) and uses a reverse VNC connection, it greatly simplifies the process of getting support.

Let's make the web faster

Tools and downloads

There are many variables that affect a site's performance. The tools listed below can help you discover those variables and improve your site. We recommend that you experiment with these tools. Multiple simple changes can improve the experience for your users around the world by several seconds.
From Google:
Page Speed

Open source Firefox/Firebug Add-on that evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement.
From other developers:
AOL Page Test

Open source tool for measuring and analyzing web page performance using Internet Explorer.
Cuzillion

Tool for quickly constructing web pages to see how components interact and how behavior differs across browsers, sometimes in unexpected ways. Also lets you share sample pages with others.
Fiddler 2

Web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP/S traffic between your computer and the Internet. Inspect HTTP/S traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.
Firebug

Firefox Add-on that lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Hammerhead

Firebug Add-on for measuring the load time of web pages.
httperf

Tool for generating HTTP workloads and measuring web server performance, and constructing micro- and macro-level benchmarks.
HttpWatch

HTTP viewer and debugger integrated with IE and Firefox to provide HTTP/S monitoring without leaving the browser window.
IBM Page Detailer

Graphical tool that assesses web page performance and provides details include the timing, size, and identity of each item in a page.
JSLint

Tool that looks for code quality problems in JavaScript programs.
JSMin

Filter which removes comments and unnecessary whitespace from JavaScript files.
Microsoft VRTA

Tool that visualizes web page download, identifies areas for performance improvements, and recommends solutions.
mon.itor.us

Provides a personalized Ajax dashboard interface, checks server performance and availability, generates uptime reports, tracks visitors, checks CPU, memory and other systems resources, and alerts when it detects abnormalities.
OOCSS

Development environment and framework for creating fast, reusable CSS objects and modules.
Pylot

Open source tool for testing the performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, verifies server responses, and produces reports with metrics.
Smush It

Online tool that allows you to upload images for lossless compression and optimization. Provides a report of bytes saved and downloads a zip file containing the optimized versions of the files.
Wbox

Performs various tests, including page load benchmarking, web server and web application stress testing, and verifies correct configuration of virtual domains configuration, redirects, and HTTP compression.
Yahoo! YSlow

Firefox/Firebug Add-on that analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance, based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.
YUI Compressor

JavaScript minifier designed to yield a higher compression ratio than other tools.

Today more or less everyone can put a simple web page together but implementation of professional Web based Application Front Ends is not as simple as some people may think. It is a complex task requiring deep knowledge of several technologies like html, css, javascript, php, etc. In this article you will find essential cheat sheets for the most commen web based technologies that you are likely to use if you’re a Front End Web Developer. First you will find resources covering client side markup and development (html, xhtml, css, javascript, jQuery etc.) and then you will find resoures covering server side development that are to some extent required for Front End Development (php, asp.net, …). Please make sure that you post a comment if you know an important resource that have not been included in the article. I hope you will find this article useful, lets get started!

Design patterns were first described in the 1960s by Christopher Alexander, an architect who noticed that many things in our lives happen according to patterns. He adapted his observations to his work and published many findings on the topic. Since then, design patterns have found their place in many areas of our lives, and can be found in the design and development of user interfaces as well.

In short, design patterns are solutions to recurring problems. By extension, UI design patterns are solutions to common user interface problems. This article goes over 10 interesting UI design patterns that you can use in your own projects. In fact, you may already be using them now without knowing it.

The beauty of code snippets is their ability to save you time when developing a site. Whether you keep a file with your own often-reused snippets or turn to one of the many online repositories, snippets can really speed up your site development.

There are plenty of places online to find code snippets and get answers to your coding questions. And many of these places let you upload your own snippets, either for personal use or to share with the community. They can also be a great place to find inspiration if you’re trying to figure out the best approach for any aspect of your site’s development.

I have a Vista/Ubuntu dual boot system, and would like to install VirtualBox to use both systems, but I don't want to uninstall any of these OS. If possible, what is the best way to accomplish this? I don't care about which OS will be the main system. I'm just after the best solution.

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own display.

This project is a maintenance fork created to implementing patches and bug fixes to synergy.

Original project located at https://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2/ and it hasn't any source updates or new releases since 2006.

NirCmd is a small command-line utility that allows you to do some useful tasks without displaying any user interface. By running NirCmd with simple command-line option, you can write and delete values and keys in the Registry, write values into INI file, dial to your internet account or connect to a VPN network, restart windows or shut down the computer, create shortcut to a file, change the created/modified date of a file, change your display settings, turn off your monitor, open the door of your CD-ROM drive, and more...

15 Free Awesome Social Bookmark Icons Sets

Input Director is a Windows application that lets you control multiple Windows systems using the keyboard/mouse attached to one computer. It is designed for folks who have two (or more) computers set up at home and find themselves regularly sliding from one system to the other (and wearing out the carpet in the process!). With Input Director, you can share a single keyboard/mouse across a set of systems. You switch which system receives the input either by hotkey or by moving the cursor so that it transitions from one screen to the other (in a very similar fashion to a multi-monitor setup). The idea being that you can position the monitors from two or more systems in a row and use a shared keyboard/mouse to control all of them.

Joda-Time provides a quality replacement for the Java date and time classes. The design allows for multiple calendar systems, while still providing a simple API. The 'default' calendar is the ISO8601 standard which is used by XML. The Gregorian, Julian, Buddhist, Coptic, Ethiopic and Islamic systems are also included, and we welcome further additions. Supporting classes include time zone, duration, format and parsing.

If your router is not listed on this site or in the programs I can add them!
By adding your router I can create all the guides, screenshot databases and have your router work in my programs.
All you need to do is use my easy to use router screen capture program. This will make getting me the data easy and simple.
For more info click here.
Router Screen Capture

Below you will find every router that has been added to the site and programs.
These are the default usernames and passwords as they where submitted to me. If a router wasn't using the defaults I looked up the default username and password on the manufactures website.

Sistema de monitoreo para enfermedades respiratorias.

Con solo llenar:
* un cuestionario inicial, en dos minutos.
* Y otro cada semana, en un minuto, reportas tu estado de salud en un cuestionario breve, y fácil de responder.

Todas las participaciones son anónimas, y ayudan a prevenir y controlar brotes de estas enfermedades. Además, ¡puedes ver los resultados conforme se van generando!

Con tu participación, se puede lograr un panorama global y actualizado, de las enfermedades respiratorias en México.

#influenza #h1n1

1. Income is as important as are capital gains. Because most investors ignore income

opportunities, income may be more important than are capital gains.

2. Most stock market indicators have never actually been tested. Most don’t work.

3. Most investors’ time horizons are much too short. Statistics indicate that day trading is largely

based on luck.

4. Bull markets are made of risk aversion and undervalued assets. They are not made of cheering and a rush to buy.

5. Diversification doesn’t depend on the number of asset classes in a portfolio. Rather, it depends on the correlations

between the asset classes in a portfolio.

6. Balance sheets are generally more important than are income or cash flow statements..

7. Investors should focus strongly on GAAP accounting, and should pay little attention to “pro forma” or “unaudited”

financial statements.

8. Investors should be providers of scarce capital. Return on capital is typically highest where capital is scarce.

9. Investors should research financial history as much as possible.

10. Leverage gives the illusion of wealth. Saving is wealth.

There are a lot of services and datasets that provide IP address geolocation, allowing you to detect a web user's city of origin based on their incoming IP. Unfortunately, most of these services cost quite a bit of money, impose limits on how many lookups you can do over a period of time, or aren't kept up to date with accurate information.

I came across a great resource today, put together by Marc-Andre Caron. He's done all the necessary legwork to solve this problem, putting together a free, monthly-updated MySQL dataset that will allow you to derive country, region, city, zip, latitude, and longitude from an IP address.

The IP addresses are listed in table ip_group_city. The data is not in the 1.1.1.1 format since it would need to be stored as text and we dont want that for obvious reasons.

Let say for ip A.B.C.D, the formula is
ip = (A*256+B)*256+C
(I assume A.B.C.0 is at the same location than A.B.C.255)

For example, if you have an ip of 74.125.45.100 (google.com)

The formula would give a result of :
ip = (74*256+125)*256+45 = 4881709

You would search for the IP address using MySQL by doing :
SELECT * FROM `ip_group_city` where `ip_start` menor o igual 4881709 order by ip_start desc limit 1;

Keep in mind that the accuracy of the data is usually down to the location of a user's ISP. Don't expect this to get you down to a street address, but if you want to display relevant content at a city, state, or country level, this will do the trick the vast majority of the time.

You know, IP addresses are just numbers to start with. The dotted-quad notation is just to make them easier for humans to deal with. MySQL has a built-in set of functions, inet_aton() and inet_ntoa() which convert IP address strings to/from their corresponding integers.

To get the equivalent integer from an IP using these functions;

mysql> select truncate( inet_aton("74.125.45.100") / 256, 0 );
+-------------------------------------------------+
| truncate( inet_aton("74.125.45.100") / 256, 0 ) |
+-------------------------------------------------+
| 4881709 |
+-------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The standard way to resolve that is to find the hosts file and map your loopback address ( 127.0.0.1 ) to "localhost".

There's an issue connected to doing that on Vista.

The hosts file is considered a system file by Vista.
You have to first take ownership of it then grant yourself full control.

These are the two commands that you need to run from an elevated command prompt.
(Right click "command prompt" and choose "Run as Administrator") :

1. takeown /f c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

2. icacls c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts /grant yourusername:f

If you installed to a drive other than "c:", modify accordingly, of course.

Now you can open the file with notepad, insert this line and save the hosts file
( make sure it doesn't acquire a .txt extension ) :

127.0.0.1 localhost

Taken from Inter Press Serv ice News Agency

Cape Town, Mar 4 (IPS) - The economist and author Prof Patrick Bond warns that the optimism about the dawn of a post-neoliberal era is premature and that ‘‘a more dangerous and painful’’ period may be ahead before any real change to the current global economic regime will be possible.

The understanding of the global economic crisis needs to move beyond concern with the financial form of the crisis to a richer sense of why capitalist dynamics are to blame, argues Bond, who is director of the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) at the University of KwaZulu Natal, in a recent paper. The CCS is based in Durban, South Africa.

In his paper he refers to comments by, among others, German chancellor Angela Merkel telling Time magazine that if the global elite ‘‘are not in a position to show that we can create a social order for the world in which such crises do not take place, then we'll face stronger questions as to whether this is really the right economic system’’.

Even conservative media such as Time magazine has featured Karl Marx, the author of Capital, on its cover with the question ‘‘What would Marx think (about the global crisis)?’’

Despite these apparent shifts in mainstream discourses, Bond points to three warning signs that show that the end of neoliberalism may still be some time off. The first is that public policy will suffer from austerity measures, associated with economic volatility, and from ‘‘a renewed lobby for micro-neoliberal measures’’.

Second, there is still ‘‘unjustified faith’’ in the multilateral system, including ‘‘a Bretton-Woods revivalism’’, which draws attention away from the national-scale solutions. Bretton-Woods refers to the meeting place where global powers formed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank after the Second World War, hence the moniker ‘‘Bretton Woods institutions’’.

Third, a new threat has emerged in the form of a re-legitimised neoliberalism and imperialism, ‘‘via the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president’’, according to Bond. His criticism of Obama centres on the latter’s choice of economic policy managers, which include several figures from the Clinton administration.

Among these is Lawrence Summer who was the main driving force in Washington behind the financial deregulation of the 1990s, which led to the global crisis. He also instigated the Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998.

Bond shows that the shift in rhetoric is not backed up in practice. At a press conference after the Group of 20 (G20) summit on the financial crisis in November 2008, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn urged all nations with the wherewithal to implement fiscal stimulus packages.

Bond reads this statement as aimed at satisfying the political imperative of the Bretton-Woods institutions to be seen as acting forcefully because of the global crisis.

But This is starkly contradicted by the IMF’s policy ‘‘advice’’ for South Africa, released in October 2008.

In its reports on South Africa, the IMF applies pressure on the South African government to maintain a budget surplus; and to implement privatisation for infrastructure and social needs, including electricity and transport. It pressurises the South African Reserve Bank to maintain current inflation-targeting and raise interest rates.

Furthermore, the IMF wants the South African treasury and trade ministries to remove protections against international economic volatility, especially financial and trade rules; and it wants the labour ministry to revoke workers’ rights in labour markets. This is despite the protection that South Africa’s residual capital controls have provided against the global crisis.

Bond adds that ‘‘the global crisis may conjure up triumphant centre-left rhetorics of post-neoliberalism in a European neo-Keynesian (and appropriately anti-American) context’’. Looking at the real power relations, however, it makes more sense to prepare a defence against austerity, he argues.

Keynesianism refers to policies inspired by influential British economist John Maynard Keynes whose proposals for a state interventionist approach in capitalist economies after the Second World War were widely embraced until the 1970s.

Regarding looming austerity measures, South Africa’s finance minister, Trevor Manuel, has warned of a further ‘‘tightening of belts’’ for some time.

In suggesting solutions, Bond calls for crucial strategic orientations to move from ‘‘an illusory post-neoliberal hubris, claimed by progressives in many sites around the world, to a more durable terrain upon which firm foundations are laid for human and environmental rights as political determinants, instead of markets and profits’’.

Bond further urges a refocus on sites of real power, which requires cutting through the ‘‘misleading hype’’ about a new Bretton-Woods conference under G20 or United Nations Financing for Development mandates, or a 2009 Copenhagen solution to the ‘‘Kyoto Protocol’s malaise’’.

The view from South Africa, he states, is to counteract the austerity, volatility and micro-neoliberal through reorganising the campaigning in ‘‘defence of financial degradation’’.

To explain the latter phrase, Bond gives as an example community members defaulting on un-repayable mortgage debt and forcing re-payment concessions from banks and creditors through community resistance, as was done in Mexico, Argentina and South Africa.

This should also be done at the national level. Bond quotes UN economic adviser Jeffrey Sachs telling African heads of state that they should refuse to pay back crippling national debt and rather spend that money on health and education.

Moreover, fruitless calls for UN action on environmental and other problems should be transcended with a reconsideration of applying national state powers, such as exchange controls, environmental re-regulation and financial nationalisation.

Bond also proposes that the ‘‘re-delegitimisation of U.S. power’’ be assisted by an insistence ‘‘on a world not addicted to the U.S. dollar and all that it represents economically, and also to provide critical (not dogmatic) support to rising anti-imperialist potentials’’.

Juan Carreón

¿La red fortalecerá o debilitará la vida cívica, la comunidad y la democracia? O sea lo que denomina “la esfera pública”, el filósofo político alemán Jürgen Habermas, para designar a la parte de la vida pública donde la gente intercambia información y opiniones que abarcan desde opiniones referentes a los baches en las calles, hasta las relacionadas con temas de política internacional.

Habermas ubica históricamente el origen de la esfera pública en los panfletos, los debates en cafés y casas de té, así como en los comités de correspondencia, que incubaron las revoluciones democráticas del siglo XVIII.

Lo que en la actualidad representa toda conversación en la que personas privadas concurren para formar un público, al actuar no como parte de una empresa o agentes profesionales realizando sus asuntos privados ni tampoco como parte de regulaciones de una burocracia estatal, obligadas a la obediencia, sino como un público que trata sin coerción asuntos de interés general.

La esfera pública al depender de la libre comunicación y la discusión de ideas es influida por los cambios en la tecnología de comunicaciones. Un público grande requiere ciertos medios de diseminación e influencia, lo que significa que actualmente la esfera pública está representada principalmente por la prensa, la radio y la televisión.

La esfera pública es el ámbito de mediación entre el Estado y la sociedad, uno en el que lo público es vehículo de apertura, el cual alguna vez tuvo que ser arrebatado a las prácticas políticas secretas de las monarquías, y que ahora permite un cierto control democrático de la actividad estatal.

A su vez, la “opinión pública” se refiere a las funciones de crítica y control, o de autoridad estatal, que el público ejerce informalmente, así como las realizadas formalmente durante las elecciones; al igual que las normas relacionadas con la transparencia de las actividades estatales, tales como los procedimientos legales.

La producción sofisticada y al mayoreo de opinión pública, así como el dominio de los medios de comunicación populares por los espectáculos electrónicos ha afectado a la esfera pública, de modo semejante a como la contaminación industrial ha dañado la biósfera, afirma Howard Rheingold.

Quien cree que los cimientos de la democracia habrían sido erosionados, mediante el poder inmenso de la televisión como difusor de imágenes cargadas de sensacionalismo, en combinación con la propiedad de cada vez más medios de difusión por cada ves menos conglomerados globales de entretenimiento, reduciendo el discurso público, incluso de temas vitales, a imágenes y frases efectistas.

No obstante lo anterior, y de que las técnicas de formación de opinión originadas en la era de la imprenta, se incrementaron a su gigantesca forma actual durante la era del “broadcast media”, ahora serían desafiadas por los medios de comunicación sociales alternativos posibilitados por Internet, al posibilitar que cualquier computadora sea potencialmente una imprenta global y/o una estación transmisora de multimedia, e incluso un medio de ensamble.

De ahí que Rheingold se pregunte si las comunicaciones ciudadanas mediante Internet sean convertidas finalmente en mercancías, cooptadas y refuncionalizadas; si los foros ciudadanos, neutralizados; o si alguna vez logren amenazar realmente el control centralizado de la opinión pública. Pues, si bien los medios de muchos-a-muchos son menos manipulables que los medios masivos, no será que sólo manipulan de forma diferente. De ahí la importancia de preguntarse, ¿hacia donde va Internet? ¿quién incrementará su poder gracias a Internet, cuando la turbulencia actual se aclare? ¿Existirán formas concretas de preservar áreas públicas universalmente accesibles en una Internet que rápidamente se privatiza?

* Howard Rheingold, Why the history of the public sphere matters in the Internet age. http://blip.tv/file/1700465

Open Web Design is a community of designers and site owners sharing free web design templates as well as web design information. Helping to make the internet a prettier place!
http://www.openwebdesign.org/

The Open Design Community is a hub for open source website designers from around the world providing thousands of XHTML and CSS based free web design templates available for download. So, please feel free to take a minute or two and browse through the designs that our fabulous designers have submitted and see if one might work for you! And remember "They're free!".
http://www.opendesigns.org/

Open Source Web Design is a site to download free web design templates and share yours with others. We help make the internet a prettier place. http://www.oswd.org/

http://www.opensourcetemplates.org/

http://www.oswt.co.uk/

http://www.free-css.com/

http://www.opensourcetemplates.org/

Style Shout!
http://www.styleshout.com/

Recently, we covered research showing that nearly half of open source developers are focused on applications for delivery in the cloud. Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are increasingly either employing open source or are built entirely on it. And all of this adds up to an increasing premium on web development skills and good tools for web development in the open source community. The good news is that there are many open source tools to help you with your web project, and given the costs of web development environments and the like, they can save you a lot of money. Here are over 15 good examples of tools and tutorials, with a few that we've covered before appended at the end, in case you missed them.

Of course, one of the most beloved tools for web developers is the Firebug extension for Firefox. If you're deep into development for the web, you probably already use it. In this post, Reuven points out that: "[With Firebug], experimenting with CSS changes no longer requires that you reload a page dozens of times; using Firebug, you can dynamically edit an HTML element's styling, looking at the effects as you change each variable value. Similarly, Firebug's JavaScript console makes it easy to work with JavaScript interactively."

Dragonfly is an open source (under a BSD license) tool for debugging web pages from the folks at Opera. Dragonfly is built to support remote debugging with other Opera sessions, on many types of machines and devices; this is especially useful for non-PC devices. We covered it in its alpha version here, and it's made much progress since then.

Cloud computing is all the rage these days, but did you know that there are many open source infrastructure tools for cloud computing that can provide free flexibility, cost savings, and more? Try these five examples.

There are a number of excellent sites where you can get tutorials on open source web development topics. DevShed is a great one, with multi-chapter tutorials on everything from Python, to PHP to Tomcat performance tuning. W3Schools is an excellent site for learning everything from CSS to AJAX to PHP, and it lets you see how your published attempts will look online. You can also find many good screencasts on web development topics online, and visit OpenSourceCMS if you'd like to try open source content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla for free.

Ruby On Rails has emerged as a giant hit with web developers, and one of the best places to find open source Rails applications is Open Source Rails. There are free starter kits there for everything from launching a blog to starting a wiki, and much more.

One challenge in delivering quality sites and applications on the web is delivering solid uptime, and monitoring network applications and devices. This job often falls on developers. There are numerous good open source site monitoring tools available to help. Nagios is well-liked for its complete site monitoring services for both Windows and Linux platforms, and is built in to other open source monitoring tools. It provides flexible reporting, and can help solve problems with failed applications, while constantly monitoring routers, switches, firewalls and more. We also covered Groundwork Monitor Community Edition here, and Groundwork Monitor 5.3 here. Groundwork monitors hundreds of devices from a single management server. Groundwork Monitor incorporates Nagios 3.0.6.

Are you in need of a web site design? Mike Gunderloy has covered Open Source Designs, which provides over 2000 web site designs, with the majority of them XHTML/CSS-based. This looks like an awesome way to get a site going with a good theme, look and platform to build on. In a similar vein to Open Source Designs, check out Open Designs. This site relies on The Open Design Community (TODC), a group of Open Source Website Designers from around the world providing thousands more XHTML- and CSS- based free web design templates for download.

Most web development environments cater especially to developers who favor certain languages and environments. Kompozer, seen at left, is a huge favorite with developers who are into CSS (cascading style sheets). Kompozer's rendering engine uses Gecko, the same layout engine in Mozilla's Firefox. It stands out for its very easy-to-use CSS editor, and strong WYSIWYG features. You also don't have to be very experienced with HTML or other web development langauges to use Kompozer. Windows, Mac and Linux users can get going with it.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization--you're probably very familiar with it, but there are many new, free tools to help you bring traffic to your web site that you may not know about. I'm a big fan of the list of 10 of these from Not Your Average Geeks. You'll find free, graphical tools from Google, Yahoo, and MSN, among others.

Piwik, at left, is open source web analytics software, and I've written once before about it--highly recommended. When it comes to doing web analytics, it's beneficial to get as many views of your data as possible, so you can use Piwik in conjunction with a tool like Google Analytics or on its own.

Piwik's features are built inside plug-ins, and a community of developers contributes interesting plug-ins. It also has a very customizable interface where you can drag and drop site metrics widgets you would like to keep an eye on onto web pages.

Quanta Plus is a very rich, open source web development environment, especially popular with those who concentrate on PHP for building sites and applications. It's based on KDE, so it appeals to those in the Linux community most. It does a good job of letting you work with multiple pages at once, and has very complete PHP debugging.

I'm always surprised by how few people doing advertising-driven things on the web don't know about OpenX, a free, open source ad server that serves more than 30,000 customers. OpenX recently secured $15.5 million in second round funding, and stands out for its flexibility. You can use it as a hosted service or you can download it if you want to run it on your own servers, keeping your ad revenue and information in-house. OpenX is ideal for small- to medium-size publishers who may not meet the hefty thresholds for traffic that can be required for big ad revenue dollars through other ad servers.

With OpenX you can deliver ads from multiple advertisers and ad networks, give high priority to higher value ad campaigns, increase overall click-through rates by limiting how often visitors see a campaign, and integrate the service with most popular existing databases.

Finally, many web-based projects are now including video. There are also a lot of good open source tools for creating, editing and working with it. Check out my list of favorites and the many excellent, free tools cited in the reader comments. I happen to work with web-based video intensively, and I was surprised by the quality of the recommended applications that readers came up with there in the comments, including the incredible MediaCoder, and MPEG Streamclip.

I’ve written previous on how to get competitors Adwords spend using SpyFu, but sometimes you just want to know how much traffic a certain site is receiving, particularly if they are within your chosen sector - which can be useful if you are thinking about making a purchase of a domain, or if you are just plain nosy. Some of the following tools can help webmasters estimate website traffic levels, both by examining the blogosphere - (works well if they actually run a blog on their site), and from looking at inbound links dotted around the web.
PopURI

http://popuri.us/

This site looks at a couple of freely available metrics, namely Pagerank, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank, Quantcast, Google Backlinks, Yahoo Backlinks, Live Search Backlinks, Technorati Links, Delicious Bookmarks, and Bloglines Subscribes. All lumped together for simplicity. nice.
Ranking.com

http://scripts.ranking.com/data/details.aspx

I couldn’t get any useful information out of this site for us, but the more popular the site is that you are researching the more accurate its results. I’d take results with a pinch of salt though. Ranking.com claim to pull their information from browser behaviour.
Google Trends for Websites

http://trends.google.com/websites

With the recent inclusion of traffic data sharing across sites (for those webmasters who enable Benchmarking in Google Analytics), Google will only continue to get more useful in this area. Google Trends for Websites (a new feature of Google Trends) allows you to take a look at traffic trends for different websites, and also gives you a feel for the other websites in that chosen sector that are visited by your visitors. Which may possibly highlight linking partners if they aren’t directly competing with you.
MarketLeap

http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

MarketLeap allow you to test your chosen website against three others, which can be useful if you are directly gauging yourself against online competition. However this is more about link popularity. Which is one of the better ways to measure your website’s online success. Simply put, link popularity refers to the total number of links or “votes” that a search engine has found for your website, and that equates to more visitors, higher pagerank and overall greater website success.
AttentionMeter

http://attentionmeter.com/

AttentionMeter gives an Overview for Compete, Alexa and Quantcast data. I haven’t individually reviewed each one of these tools as they are well enough known in the Analytics world already. Both Quantcast and Compete are much more commercial tools and are mentioned later. Attentionmeter grabs the freely available data from each one of these sites, and correlates it nicely together via a few graphs. Well worth checking out.

Alexa

Alexa, a company (owned by Amazon) has traditionally always received alot of flack about the inconsistency of its data, however when you are trying to gauge potential traffic from competition, and don't have access to their statistics package, it has always been worth checking. They also list other websites owned to many webmaster’s disgust.
Other useful bits.

A few other competitor analysis / market intelligence tools.

Our Review of SpyFU SpyFu Reviewed.

SEOMoz article on competitor analysis online:http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-blog-stats

Commercial Tools.

http://hitwise.com/

http://compete.com

http://quantcast.com

http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/solutions.jsp?section=sol_4&nav=4

There are a number of useful tools at the disposal of us olde search optimisers. So you’ve spent months chasing a specific keyword, dropping links like a maniac, until you reach that top ten position on your search engine of choice, only to find that traffic dribbles in slower than a snail on crack. So what do we do? We research. The following paid and free research tools are well worth a shot at determining how much your chosen keywords are likely to bring in.
Google Adwords Free Tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Firstly we start with ye olde Google. If you uses adwords advertising you will know all about this keyword tool. It is of course free to advertisers and search engine heros alike. Unfortunately it doesn’t really give us exact details on search volume, instead using charts to show the competition. The excel downloads dont give much information either.
Yahoo / Overture Free Tool

http://inventory.overture.com/

Overture (Read Yahoo) also has a tool for determining potential traffic from specific key phrases.
Msn Keyword Tool

http://adlab.msn.com/ForecastV2/KeywordTrendsWeb.aspx

At the minute this is absolutely my favourite tool for predicting search results. Im going to let the pretty screenshots shown below speak for themselves as the level of information you can get for competitive terms. I tested the word “viagra” to see what comes up (forgive the pun). There is also a raw data (in text format) and flash version of the same graph.

trendslinechartaspx.jpg

And now for the third party tools..
HighPosition.net SEO Tools

http://seotools.highposition.net/Keyword-Research-Tool.aspx

Seo tools shows a good old fashioned HTML table. But you have to wonder on its accuracy considering the graph we see above for MSN.
Wordtracker

http://www.wordtracker.com/index.html

Ah, Wordtracker. Every search engine optimisers favourite tool. Wordtracker have been extremely clever in their past marketing efforts themselves. Tempt us in with a free trial..then grab the bigger players with a paid option. Wordtrackers own backlinks stands at a hefty 80,000 + backlinks at time of writing, which show their own knowledge of the search industry. They have recent moved to a “give me your credit card so we can renew your free trial” AOL type business model, so for your benefit we’ve decided to take the trial and show you guys around. The montly subscription costs $59, but can be cancelled at any time.

So they have their backlinks built, and their traffic and are moving towards a more shrewd business model. Anyway, onto the service and the screenshots of what you get.

blog1.jpg

This shows an overview of the features you get from the service, I started with going to the keyword researcher. This allows you to search for keyword in a variety of ways, and pick up alternatives / mis-spellings and figures for the quantity of searches performed across the engines. Starting with a seed keyword it suggests a few alternatives. It also distiguishes between UK and US based searches which is pretty cool.

See the screenshots below for further bits and pieces. It also gives two interesting reports showing that the porn industry is live and well online. The search reports for the recent search trends (short term keywords) and the long term keywords. I’ve saved and uploaded them here for you to get a look at ‘em. You can select further options after the search is performed to determine the level of searches your chosen “basket” will amoun to.

blog2.jpg

blog2.jpg

Overall I was very impressed with the service, the excel spreadsheet export is also pretty neat. I also learned that I might need to change a few things about my own site, that could result in new traffic so overall I think its a very powerful tool, and well worth taking the trial for the seven days to find out what you are missing out on. For those of you who knew the service before, that the old Wordtracker keyword tool (with the small dig button - as in a spade not as in social bookmarker) is still alive and well from within the control panel.
Nichebot

http://www.nichebot.com/

I have seen various blogs mention the joys of nichebot before, but I personally didn’t like the design (or lack thereof ) of the site - it looks like a ten year old threw it together and therefore I wasn’t going to part with the $1 fee for a signup. It uses Wordtracker data anyway, so nothing we cant get already.

nichebot.jpg
Keyword Discovery

http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/

The keyword discovery site took absolute ages to load for me. I dont know whether this is a sign that they are busy, or are on a poor hosting server, but anyway..their free tool is available at the below URL. At time of writing I couldn’t get on to review their tool properly, but I do know that the main site is a paid model, the link below is a freebie.

http://api.keyworddiscovery.com/cgi-bin/addme/free.cgi
Wordze

http://www.wordze.com

keywordresearch1.jpg

With Wordze, this is a similar service to Wordtracker, giving similar results. One thing I did notice with Wordze is that it gives poorer output options for downloading your keywords, and isn’t as highly regarded in the search engine industry as Wordtracker would be. I’ve included here for completeness anyway. This isn’t a free service at a cost of $45 dollars monthly for the all singing all dancing monthly subscription. This is compared with $59 for Wordtracker.

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

This free tool taps into Wordtrackers database, and is extremely useful if you are on a budget. Aaron Wall the developer of the tool, is an extremely highly thought of SEO in the industry, so you can trust the results.
NicheWatch

http://www.nichewatch.com/

Not so much a keyword tool as a competition tracker, it gives comprehensive data on the following bits and bobs, for particular phrases.
Symbol Definition
BLD Backlinks to the domain in Yahoo.
BLP Backlinks to the webpage in Yahoo.
PRD Pages Rank of domain.
PRP Pages Rank of webpage.
Count Keyword/Keyphrase occurrences on webpage.
Pages Pages indexed of domain in Yahoo.
Anchor All in Anchor Rank of domain in Google.
Title All in Title Rank of domain in Google.
Text All in Text Rank of domain in Google.
Miva

https://account.uk.miva.com/advertiser/Account/Popups/KeywordGenBox.asp

Miva, gives out the number of searches for keywords or phrases based around their advertising networks and is useful for gaining a perspective of how many searches are performed - especially if your niche is highly competitive.

Some other useful Keyword tools

Some of these may not be specifically keyword traffic tools but they can be leveraged to gain useful information on the competition and related keywords.

Google Suggest

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Google suggest, obviously this is used to try and predict what users may be searching for before they actually finish typing, we can use it to see related stubs related to keywords and phrases.

Google trends

http://www.google.com/trends

See peaks and falls across the year (i.e. seasonal changes in keywords / phrases). This would be particularly useful for determining when to launch a marketing campaign which is affected by the weather or country of origin etc.

Spyfu

http://www.spyfu.com/

A mighty useful tool to see what other websites in your chosen subject area are chasing. Type in your competitors domain to see what they are targetting in both the natural search engines and the pay per click model.

Keyword Density in Search Engine Ranking
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/keyworddensity.shtml

Setting up Sun VirtualBox 2.0.6 under Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid
http://reformedmusings.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/setting-up-sun-virtualbox-6-under-ubuntu-810-intrepid/

Format CSS
http://www.lonniebest.com/FormatCSS/

The Google Sitemap Generator script
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html

Google Sitemap Generator
http://www.auditmypc.com/free-sitemap-generator.asp

Google Site Map Generator URL based
http://www.neuroticweb.com/recursos/sitemap/

Affiliate Price Comparison Script for PHP and MySQL
http://www.pricetapestry.com/

CSS Formatter and Optimiser
http://floele.flyspray.org/csstidy//css_optimiser.php

CSS Tidy
http://csstidy.sourceforge.net/example.php

https://breachsecurity.webex.com/cmp0305l/webcomponents/docshow/docshow.do?javaEnable=false&siteurl=breachsecurity&rnd=0.06901900529836169

Publicado: Enero 26th, 2009

Juan Carreón

Al mismo tiempo que se discute si la recesión tocará fondo en el primer trimestre o que si dicha recesión se extenderá aún más, y que se afinan las definiciones de lo que han sido las depresiones o qué tan prolongadas o profundas pueden ser, se analizan las posibilidades inéditas de innovaciones cuya audacia está en relación directa a la gravedad de la crisis.

“La buena noticia es que las opciones impensables son las que ahora tienen muchas ventajas”, afirma Scott Adams, autor de la tira cómica Dilbert.

Lo que se avecina ha sido descrito por el historiador Nial Ferguson en una retrospectiva imaginaria de 2009, afirmando de éste, que fue el año en el que la gente se rindió a la posibilidad de pronosticar el año siguiente, pues cuando menos los pronósticos tuvieron que ser revisados a la baja cuando menos tres veces, y cuando la paradoja de la globalización quedó desnuda a cualquiera que quisiera contemplarla*.

Los problemas financieros globales afectarán la dirección y contenido de la innovación, la que a su vez modulará finalmente lo que algunos han denominado la sociedad red, de la que se dice será de mayor transparencia a la actual, así como más descentralizada, pues es cada vez más interconectada, en red y colaborativa.

Así como la imprenta amplificó la mente individual, y el teléfono, las comunicaciones, un conjunto de nuevas herramientas que abarcan desde mensajes de texto y teléfonos celulares hasta blogs y wikis, amplifican las comunicaciones grupales, y debido a que los individuos de forma natural operan en grupos, cualquier cosa que amplifique las tareas en grupo modifica la sociedad, afirma Clay Shirky**.

En su opinión, estaría iniciándose una transferencia masiva de poder, desde la sociedad burocrática tradicional (en la que la mayor parte del control permanece en la cúspide de la jerarquía), hacia la población en general. La gente está siendo “empoderada” (dándole poder de decisión), lo cual está mostrando ser mucho más eficaz que modelos institucionales sociales previos.

Productores como consumidores
Pues nuevos esquemas sociales más rápidos, colaborativos y descentralizados, construidos con base en Internet y la mensajería instantánea, entre otras nuevas tecnologías, permiten a los individuos ser sus propios periodistas, mediante información producida por todos y para todos, aproximándonos al tiempo en el que todos seremos tanto productores como consumidores.

En todo caso, es importante considerar como parte de los desarrollos tecnológicos actuales, y de sus consecuencias sociales, lo que afirma el escritor Howard Rheingold.

Desde una perspectiva más consciente y crítica, considera que pronto se comprobará si los incipientes “smart mobs” (colectivos inteligentes) quedan neutralizados y convertidos en un conjunto móvil de consumidores pasivos de nuevos medios masivos controlados centralmente, o si los individuos y las comunidades logran apropiarse de medios innovadores que les permitan ser productores de sus propios mensajes, como resultado complejo tanto de procesos inevitables de convergencia tecnológica y de actitudes gubernamentales ante la misma, así como de las opciones de apropiación de dicha convergencia por parte de los usuarios***.

* Nial Ferguson, An imaginary retrospective of 2009, Financial Times, december 7 2008,
** Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, Penguin, February 2008.
*** Véase el blog de Howard Rheingold.

Minimizing the filesize of the CSS stylesheet has been regarded by many as a good way to increase your site loading speed. Indeed, by reducing the CSS file by several kilobytes, the server will take a shorter time to load and result in a faster webpage.
In the event that your articles hit the Digg frontpage, this could also be one of the few deciding factors (there are many more) whether your server will crash or not.
Some of the most common methods used to optimize/minimize a CSS stylesheet involves eliminating unused selectors, unwanted whitespace, tabs, comments and change the longhand declaration to shorthand notations.
I know that some of you here are not tech-savvy enough to edit your own CSS code, so here I will provide you with some of the useful tools that you can use to optimize your CSS code, even if you have completely no knowledge of CSS coding.
Check your CSS code
W3C CSS Validator
The W3C CSS validator is a tool that you can use to validate your CSS. You can either download the Java validator to your computer and use it offline, or use the online form to check your CSS code.

CSS Validator Firefox Add-On
To make it easier for you to validate your CSS code, there is this Firefox extension - CSS Validator - that you can install on your browser. Once installed, you can easily and quickly check your code with a right click of the mouse.
CSSCheck
Even though your CSS code is validated, it does not mean that it is free from error. The validation only means that it complies with the CSS standards set by the W3C. If you want to validate as well as looking into a few browser compatibility issues with your stylesheet, then CSSCheck is a good tool for you.
CSS Analyzer
CSS Analyzer is an useful tool that allows you to validate your stylesheet against the W3C’s standard, perform a color contrast test, and a test to ensure that relevant sizes are specified in relative units of measurement.
In case you are wondering, the color contrast test is to check that the foreground and background color combinations provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color deficits, or when viewed on a black and white screen.
Clean up your CSS code
Dust-Me Selectors
Dust-Me Selectors is a Firefox extension that finds unused CSS selectors on the page that you are viewing. As you test subsequent pages of the same domain, the result is cross-checked with the previous data and any selectors encountered are crossed off from the list. You can use it to test individual pages or get it to spider the whole site.
In the end, you will get a report on the selectors that are not used anywhere in the site. You can then remove those selectors from your stylesheet (lesser code means smaller filesize).

CSS Redundancy Checker
Similar to Dust-Me Selectors, this tool checks your site for unused and redundant CSS selectors. The only thing that is different is that you need to manually enter the URI for each page that you want to test.

Optimize and Compress your CSS code
Once you have completed checking the validity of your CSS and cleaned up unnecessary code, it’s time to optimize and reduce it to the smallest possible size.
CSS Tidy
CSS Tidy is an open source software that you can use to optimize and compress your CSS file. It is available in .exe format (Windows only) and a zipped php script format (all platforms, for Web developers). What CSS Tidy does is mainly remove the comment, unnecessary whitespace and change some of the code to shorthand. During compression, you can choose between code readability or maximum compression. Depending on the length of your code, you can easily achieve a compression ratio of up to 30% or more.
Since CSS Tidy is an open source project, there have been several websites that use the code and turned it into an online tool for people to use. Here are some of them:
CLEAN CSS
Code Beautifier
CSS Formatter and Optimizer from CSS Portal
CSS Formatter and Optimizer from Flyspray
Other CSS Optimizers
FlumpCakes CSS Optimizer
A simple optimizer that comes with several options for you to choose from.

Robson CSS Compressor
While it may look the same as others, I have found the compression rate for Robson CSS Compressor to be the highest among them all. Although it comes with several options for you to tweak the setting, leaving all the options untouched (all options checked) always produces the best result.
CSS Drive CSS Compressor
The CSS Compressor offered by CSS Drive comes in two modes that you can use: Regular and Advanced. In the Regular mode, you only need to select which level of compression you want (Light, Normal or Super Compact) and the CSS Compressor will do the rest. In the Advanced mode, you are given more options and a greater say on how you want your stylesheet to be optimized.
CSS Optimizer
The CSS Optimizer from mabblog.com is a command line application for Mac and Linux. It is meant for those who are more comfortable with the terminal rather than an online interface. There is also a simple online version available for those who want to quickly get it over and done with.
Hopefully the tools listed here are enough for you to tweak and optimize your CSS stylesheet. If you have used any other tools that are more useful than those mentioned above, share them with us in the comments.

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