Tudo ou Nada?

Às vezes a net leva-nos a sítios estranhos. Procurava uma lista normalizada de distritos, conselhos e freguesias porque nem o sistema contabilístico de 500€ que utilizo, nem o de 130,000€, a inclui. Pensei, "Tem a ver com a organização do país." e fui procurar no sítio do governo. Pela ligação "ministérios" cheguei ao sítio do MAOTDR. O que é que faz este ministério?

É o Ministério do Ambiente, Organização do Território e Desenvolvimento Regional. O sítio é muito fraço, talvez reflexo das prioridades do governo. É confortante saber que o edifício do próprio ministério foi alvo de uma auditoria ambiental! Ainda há sinais no site de actividades de desenvolvimento regional, mas de organização do território - nada.

Chega de pensar! Vamos ao mais simples. O Google dá resultados imediatos, claro! STAPE tem as tabelas, embora não no formato mais útil. Só um pequeno senão - STAPE foi abolido por fusão, de acordo com a página de entrada. Infelizmente não se explica com que entidade fundiu! Mas isso é um pormenor...

Strange Democracy (2)

The other strange democratic happening of the last few weeks has been the collapse of Lisbon City Council. How is it possible that the PSD sees fit to paralise the largest City in Portugal because its (independent) mayor was asked by the public prosecutor to make declarations about a matter that clearly is not his fault nor responsability.

So now, rather than working to manage a complicated city and clear the backlog of payments, planning decisions, etc., the politicians have six weeks to make fatuous declarations, slander each other, and generally waste everybody's time.

First off the line was Helena Roseta, with her indignant insistence that the City's accounts should be published on its website for all to see. Brilliant! How many voters could actually make sense of such accounts? Is the treasury problem the fault of Carmona Rodrigues (doubt it), or Santana Lopes (probably) or even João Soares? What will she come up with next?

My principal hope is that voters send a message to the PSD, pushing them into 4th place behind the two independents. Not that the party would take much notice - the important party representatives are almost guaranteed to be elected with this party list system: proportional representation, for the benefit of the powerful, not the voter.

A Travessia do Deserto

Just where do they get these ministers from? Don't they know that anything that they say while in office is on the record?

Mário Lino is a shabby, awkward-looking fellow who has done a fairly good job of keeping his mouth shut up to now, but really blew that record with "South of the Tagus River is a desert". On that basis he would never build the new airport there.

Hang on a minute. What does a new airport need? A lot of empty space close to a major city. So shouldn't the "desert" criterion argue in favour of siting the airport there. No! Better to cram the airport between an escarpment and the river, right in the middle of residential and industrial properties.

Looks like another otário to me!

Freedom of Religion

As part of RTP1's coverage of the Madeleine Macann case, the reporter said that there will be a mass, when viewers are invited to pray for the girl's safe return, next Tuesday evening.

"For those who are not Catholic, two minutes' silence should be observed."

So if you are religious, but not Catholic, shut up! Don't even think of praying.

Obviously that is not the intention, but who is the small-minded idiot who wrote the copy that the reporter read out?

HP Touchsmart IQ770 Desktop PC

Back in the old days, when technology advanced at a pace that an amateur could keep up with, I had a clear preference for each type of device: desktops and servers were Compaq; printers were HP, portables were Toshiba and Mac's were strange but beautiful objects that wouldn't run any of the software I needed.

I did experiment with other equipment - Compaq portables were not robust enough, HP desktops were chronically slow, other printer brands were slower and less reliable.

How things have changed! HP killed off the Compaq brand unceremoniously, doing away with the website in a matter of weeks and never really getting up to speed on supporting Compaq's huge installed user base. (I never again bought Compaq/HP desktops or servers - unbranded are fine). Mac's now run Windows! Toshiba continues to rule to roost for me in portables though.

So here is a challenge from HP. A media centre PC which looks good enough to challenge the Mac's, has a 320MB disc, 19" touch screen, cordless mouse and keyboard. It's a shame it doesn't seem to be available in Portugal.

CD of the month (4)

Gustav Holst is considered one of the key members of the renaissance in British classical music in the early 20th century. His most famous work is the Planets suite, written between 1914 and 1916.

I've uploaded the first track - Mars, the Bringer of War. This is not good driving music, you risk driving through the car in front.

Curiously my friend JMMG also wrote a post about this back in September.

Strange Democracy

There were two news events this week that showed unusual angles on democracy.

The first was the rioting in France after the election of Sarkozy as president. There's no doubt that he is a right-wing tough guy, hated for his role in putting down last year's riots, but there was no question of electoral fraud. As for the result, it wasn't even close.


So were the rioters just protesting because they dislike him, or more justifiably, because they are unable to register to vote? I wouldn't put it past the Interior Ministry to exclude the disenchanted youth from the electoral roll. Who would benefit but the now president-elect.

But that couldn't possibly be the case. What am I thinking of?